Wings of Fire-Jade Academy (Human AU)
by AshEmber The Nightwing
Summary: Follow the Jade Winglet, as humans! Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, Winter, Qibli, Turtle, Umber, and Carnelian are all at Jade Acadmey for their high school years. Don't forget about the challenges! You could win a chance for your character to be in the story! Rated K plus![Season One-Welcome to Jade Academy!] [Season Two-The Broken Queen Rises] Now complete!
1. Welcome to Jade Academy!

**Hey! First story and chapter so sorry if it's bad, please leave a review if you want this story to continue as it's request based! If there aren't any requests for a week after posting a chapter, I make up my own.**

 **Point of view for this story is...Moonwatcher!**

 **I do NOT I repeat DO NOT own wings of fire.**

"Mom?" Moon asked, "I know I have to go back to school...but why this one?" Moon gestured to the crowd of teenagers outside of Jade Academy. A public school, no uniform, light dress code, and around thirty-five students with it's grand opening. Among the high-schoolers gathered near the front gates, Moon could see dyed hair, many different skin colors, and different assortments of clothes. What she heard though, was insane.

From inside of her mother's car, she could still hear the loud thoughts of all the other people there, thoughts like,

" _Seriously, that guy's clothes are_ way _too colorful and bright."_ and

" _Come on, just open up the gates already, my legs hurt!"_ and then there were others that rang even more painfully in Moon's head, like,

" _I'm so excited to be here! I'll make new friends and even get their phone numbers so we can hang out after school!"_ It was all pretty overwhelming for her first day there.

"Moon, I'm sorry," her mother said, "but I've tried sending you to a private school, and you said it didn't help with your...condition. Maybe here you can control it and make new friends!" Moon highly doubted that would happen. Most of the people here seemed so friendly, but mostly towards the others who were friendly. At former schools, she'd heard what others thought of her, that she was weird, private, and secretive. It didn't help that some of the middle schoolers were less...sensitive about how they let out those thoughts.

But then again, who would want to be friends with a freak like her?

She was extremely pale, pale to the point where she looked chalk white. It clashed with the clothes she preferred to wear, all black, usually a hoodie over a t-shirt and black skinny jeans. She kept to herself, not because she was depressed, but because being around too many people gave her a headache because of the one thing that made her special.

She could read minds.

It was like in some of the fairy tales that her mother read to her when she was young. At first, she wanted to use it like in the stories, helping others with all their problems. That was until she realized how terrible a gift it was, it gave her a headache to listen to a group of people and when she was alone with one person, she could hear everything that they hated about her.

"Mom, I wanna go home." Moon blurted out.

"Moon." her mother said in a soft warning tone.

"Okay, I'll...I'll go. I can come back during the Christmas break, right?"

"If you want to."

"Alright." she opened the car door, and reluctantly stepped out.

" _I'm sorry, Moon, but I'm worried about you, stay safe, my little Moonbeam."_ Moon smiled at her mother as she thought that. Moon closed the door behind her, and started walking down the steps to Jade Academy, where she would be staying for the school year.

"Hello new students!" A female voice over the intercom shouted, blaring in their ears, Moon stopped for a second in her tracks, shocked by the sudden blast of noise in her ears, rather than her head, "Um...Tsunami? You don't have to shout, there's a microphone right next to you." A male voice reminded the female one, "Oh right, sorry Starflight. Well, anyway, welcome students! This is Jade Academy, as you probably already know. I hope that you can meet new friends and learn new things! Wow this script is making me sound like Sunny. Meet Fatespeaker at the front desk for your dorm room assignment, you'll be paired with one or two people of the same gender as yourself. Today is just getting to know the campus. Walk around! Explore! There's a board on the right of Fatespeaker's desk that lets you know who your group is. We tried to pair you with people we thought appropriate, so have fun!" As the intercom crackled off, Moon could hear the male voice from earlier saying,

"Wow, we screwed up royally." There was silence for a second, with some wondering what had just happened, then conversation started again. As the students were chatting about what had just happened, the gates slowly opened, and the people funneled in. Moon caught up to everyone, and as she filed in, the gates closed behind her, trapping her inside.

 _Stop thinking about this place like a prison, it's a school, a_ good _place._

There was a line in front of her which looked pretty long, so she pulled her phone out of her pocket and started playing some apps on it to try and block out the other's thoughts. When it was, she hurriedly put it away and was greeted to the sight of a young woman holding a sheet of paper.

"Hi! I'm Fatespeaker, and you're Moonwatcher, right?" she said excitedly.

"Umm...yes." Moon timidly replied, slightly scared by the woman's enthusiasm.

"I read your mind to figure it out!" She joked, "Well, you're the last one in line, so who else would you be?"

"Okay." said Moon, partially disappointed. If this woman could read minds, then she could help Moon to block out some people's thoughts.

"Well, looks like you're in dorm C-four and roommates with two girls, Kinkajou and Carnelian." Oh great, she had two roommates, hopefully they'd be quiet.

Moon went to her dormitory to find no one there. She found this surprising, considering she was the last one to check in. She looked around and took it in. There were three beds, one in every corner that wasn't for the door. Next to each bed was a nightstand with two drawers, and a desk on the far wall, which had three drawers. One bed had midnight black covers, one had rainforest green covers, and one had fiery orange covers. She chose the black ones, jumping and flopping down on the bed. It was pretty comfortable, actually, she doubted she would have trouble sleeping.

"Hey!" a voice shouted from outside. Moon opened the door a little to peek outside, watching the first fight at the school happen barely ten minutes after it opened.

"Why are you shouting at me?" another voice yelled back, Moon opened the door to see that it belonged to a small boy with greenish-blue hair, and turquoise clothes. Moon also saw who he was yelling at, a tall girl with fiery orange hair and reddish-orange clothes, she also had a furious expression, all aimed at the little boy.

"What are you doing in the girls' dormitories you weirdo!?" she practically screamed.

"Hey! If someone makes a wrong turn, that's no reason to shout at them!" he retorted, this only seemed to make the girl angrier.

"Pay more attention next time!" she hollered, then muttered under her breath, "You dimwit."

"Hey, what's going on?" someone asked. Many people turned their heads, and Moon could tell who it was before they started whispering by their thoughts.

" _Ooh! It's Clay!"_

" _He looked at me!"_

" _Will he talk to me?"_ He approached the two high-schoolers glaring at each other. Clay was really tall, in around his mid-twenties. He had dark brown hair, a brownish chocolate tint to his skin, and wearing a simple brown shirt and sweatpants.

"What's going on? I heard shouting." he said.

" _He's_ in the girls dormitories." said the girl dryly.

"I took a wrong turn!" the boy protested.

"All right, Pike, your dorm is on the left from the courtyard, not the right. It's okay, but try to calm down. Carnelian, if someone takes a wrong turn, don't make them feel terrible about it." Clay said, trying to resolve everything. Carnelian grumbled for a second about being unfair, and then stomped right into the room that Moon was in. Woah woah woah! What did she do? Why was she...wait...the red covers...she was her roommate, wasn't she.

"Umm...hi?" Moon said timidly. Carnelian flopped onto the bed with the red sheets and let out a short, mad hello. Moon opened the door, wanting to get away from the fuming girl next to her, when a rainbow ran into her.

"Oh! Sorry! Hi! I'm Kinkajou! This is SO awesome! School is the best! What's your name? You were in there, so are we roommates? If so, awesome!" Moon was overwhelmed by the small freshman in front of her. Kinkajou had a rainbow for hair, each streak a different color. Her tank top was a bright neon pink, and her jeans and neon green. Everything about her was all smiles and excitement. Wow, school was going to be interesting.

"Hi, I'm Moonwatcher, but please just call me Moon." Moon told Kinkajou.

"All right! Hi Moon!" Kinkajou replied enthusiastically.

"What is wrong with you two? I've got one roommate who's super loud, and one who's super quiet." Carnelian asked from her bed.

"I think that Tsunami told me that there were some school supplies in the night stands." said Kinkajou, calmer. Moon could tell that she wanted to be friends with Carnelian, so better not be too loud. As Kinkajou was fumbling with the drawers on her nightstand, Moon opened the closet to see it sectioned into three. One for each student there, she guessed. After that, Moon went to her own nightstand and opened it. Inside was a black backpack with a picture of the moon on it, a pencil case already filled with pens, pencils, and erasers, some textbooks, a student ID card, and a laptop. She organized her backpack until the front pocket had her pencil case and her ID card, and the back pocket with her books and room for her new laptop. She then took the new laptop and sat on the bed, curious.

"You got a laptop, too?" Kinkajou asked.

"Yeah, I have no idea what the model is, though."

"Based on how they all have their own special designs, I'm guessing that Starflight made them himself." Moon mused for a second on how a blind young man could make thirty five computers, but remained silent. Carnelian was silent, and hadn't opened her drawers, either. Moon looked on the back of her laptop, and the design was almost exactly the same as the one on her backpack. She flipped it open, and went to the desktop screen. Programs for school stuff, like graphing, documenting, and presentations. Normal computer stuff, like the trash can and the Internet. Then a couple of games that she'd never heard of. Moon fiddled around for a bit on the settings until the background was of a starry night, and everything was organized. She tried out one of the games, which was a puzzle in which she was able to choose five creatures and a helper, then you matched orbs that were six different colors to both attack and heal. Honestly, it was quite fun! She was already on the seventh dungeon when Kinkajou said,

"Well, I've got my laptop set up, wanna get something to eat?" Moon saved the game and put down her laptop,

"Sure thing, Carnelian, do you wanna come?" asked Moon, trying to sound braver than she was about asking that question. Carnelian let out a grumbly no, and Moon dashed out of the room, shortly followed by Kinkajou.

"So her name's Carnelian? I wanted to ask, but didn't want to seem rude, so I just waited until you said it, because you seemed like you knew already." Kinkajou said.

"Oh, Okay." Moon replied, a little wowed by the fact that Kinkajou wanted to be friends with Carnelian so much. Together they got some fruit at the cafeteria, where Moon learned that Kinkajou was strictly vegetarian, by her own decision, not anyone else's, luckily there was no one else there, so there weren't too many thoughts barging around in her head. They wandered around campus, getting an idea for where everything was. They stopped at the library, where Starflight confirmed that before an explosion made him blind, he had made a computer, and a company helped them to make more of them for the students. Moon could use her student ID like a library card, and immediately she rented a book called Void in the Past, which looked pretty interesting.

It was getting pretty late it the evening, around eight. Moon and Kinkajou had mapped the campus so that they wouldn't get lost, and they'd met Tsunami, the gym coach, and Sunny, the academics teacher.

"Hey Moon?" asked Kinkajou.

"Yeah?"

"You've seemed like everytime someone walks past, you get a headache, is there anything wrong?"

"No, I'm just feeling a little sick, sorry." Moon lied. A growing feeling of worry engulfing her. What if her new friend found out? She'd hate her. Stay secret, stay hidden, stay safe. That's what she needed to do.

"Oh, okay. You wanna head back to the dorm?"

"Sure, I bet you that Carnelian's still grumpy."

"You're on." They raced back to the dormitories to find, sure enough, that Carnelian was still moping. Moon smirked at Kinkajou, luckily they hadn't bet any money, as neither of them had any with them. Moon grabbed a phone charger from her pocket, and put her phone on charge as she looked at the schedule for school.

 **Eight AM - Classes begin (Small group)**

 **Nine AM - Second period**

 **Ten AM - Third period**

 **Eleven AM - Fourth period**

 **Noon - Lunch**

 **One PM - Fifth period**

 **Two PM - Sixth period**

 **Three PM - Classes end**

 **Nine PM - Lights out**

Moon set her phone alarm for seven in the morning, and jumped into her bed. She clicked her lamp off, and saw Kinkajou do the same. A couple of minutes later, before she fell asleep, Moon realized that she'd forgotten to wish to go home all day.

 **So? What did you think? A shoutout to the person who can guess what game I was talking about! Please review for a chance for the next chapter to be your idea! Hope you liked it. Constructive criticism is welcome. AshEmber OUT!**


	2. Getting to Know Each Other

**Hey! Back again for the second chapter! Hope you enjoy, and again, leave a review for a chance for the next chapter to be your idea! If you haven't noticed, Moon can read minds. This is going to be the only 'power' in this because it helps to make the character flow. I had an idea, the first person to guess what real life game Moon was playing in chapter one will somehow be worked into a chapter...good luck!**

 **Point of view for this story is...Turtle! SageandSky's suggestion!**

 **I DO NOT own Wings of Fire.**

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Turtle's eyes snapped open as his alarm clock rang. He snatched his phone off of his desk and shut it off, not wanting to wake up Umber, who was next to him. Turtle checked the time, just to be sure that he set the alarm correctly, as he had never had to use it before. Six in the morning, as planned. Umber stirred a little in his sleep, muttering something about fluffy cows. Turtle smiled, he thought it was kind of funny that they were both related to the schools founders, Turtle to Tsunami, and Umber to Clay. Now Turtle could go do some swimming before school, as he had gotten up two hours early. He wrote a note for Umber and left it on his nightstand.

 _Hey Umber, just went to do some swimming before school started, don't worry about me, I'll be back at around seven-thirty if you want to talk to me. See you soon!_

 _-Turtle_

That should be good. Turtle grabbed his swim shorts and left the room. As he was leaving the boys dormitory building, Turtle noticed how quietit was, even with it being a school campus. Birds were still chirping, but it was so different from the house he lived in. When he woke up early in the morning for whatever reason, whether to talk with his friends on video chat without being interrupted, to go swimming without his many brothers there too, or even to just read a book in quiet. There was always a bunch of noise. His brothers snoring, cars shorting past outside, or maybe even one of his brother's televisions would be on because they forgot to turn it off. His house was huge, a mansion four stories tall, and all of his siblings went to private school. He had three sisters, too. There was Tsunami, one of the Jade Academey founders, Anenome, who like him was really into fantasy, magic, and anime, and Auklet, who was still only five years old (tried and probably failed to convert dragon years to human years) and she was adorable.

With thirty-four siblings, it was easy to get overlooked by their parents. Luckily he preffered that over being paid attention to all the time. Maybe with their classes, he wouldn't get noticed _too_ much. Umber was great, but he didn't know about the other five who he would be meeting in about two hours. He made it to the gym, and walked across the clean floor. The gym was huge, walls that reached about double the height of the basketball hoops, enough room for two different basketball courts to be placed with space in between, and many different colored lines to indicate what sport boundaries they were for. He looked to the right, and saw the label for the boys locker rooms with the girls to the left. Walking across the gym took him to the pool, which had three sections. One for recreation, one for racing, and one for diving. He quickly changed his clothes in the locker room, and jumped into the pool.

It was great to be in the water again, but when wasn't it? The water was his element. The one sport he actually _liked_ doing. The water was clean, refreshing, and in this case, filled with chlorine. He swam a couple of laps, and did a few dives, and practiced his strokes, when a voice from overhead startled him,

"Turtle!" It was Umber.

"Oh, hey Umber! What's up? The sun still hasnt fully risen."

"I decided to get up at six-thirty, to try and figure out my laptop, and asked for your help. Then I realized that I'd been asking for help from thin air. Then I saw your note. When did you wake up?"

"Half hour before you did, wanna get in?"

"Um, I actually don't know how to swim…"

"What?" How could anyone not know how to swim? It was the best. He made a pact with himself, right then and there, that if Umber agreed with it, he would teach him how to swim.

"Yeah, I never felt the need to, and we don't live anywhere near a deep area of water, and we don't own a pool. So…"

"Do you want me to teach you?" Turtle asked, Umber's face brightened.

"Sure! I was actually hoping you'd say that."

"Alright then, it's settled. We'll wake up early and I'm going to make you the best swimmer you can be."

"We can't start today though."

"Why?"

"A, I don't have a swimsuit. B, I came here to ask you to help with the laptop."

"Well, A's a good reason, but sure, I'll help with your laptop." Turtle climbed out of the pool, and dried off using the towel he'd brought. He changed back into his pale green t-shirt and jeans, and double checked to make sure he didn't need to reapply his hair dye colored to match his clothes. After walking out, he saw Umber waiting at the door, it took him a second to see him, his amber shirt and tan shorts blended in with the walls behind him. His skin and hair didn't stand out either, being s chocolate brown. He looked very similar to Clay.

"So? Ready to try and figure out some tech stuff?" Turtle asked.

"Not really, but thanks for the help." Umber said, sounding really grateful. They walked to the cafeteria and Umber pulled his laptop out of his backpack. Together they worked on it until Umber had figured out the computer and had exactly what he wanted. He had organized everything into folders and had an image of a sunlit swap for a screensaver. It was around then that from his gym back, Turtle heard his phone alarm ring.

"Oh shoot! I need to go grab my backpack! Umm...I'll see you at class!" Turtle shot down the path to the dormitories, and saw many filing outside of the doors. Sure, about seventeen students weren't that much, but he had about five minutes to get his things, and put his other things away. Luckily he'd left the window unlocked and a crack open. I ran to the side of the building, and spotted my dorm. Throwing open the window, I climbed inside and got what I needed. Throwing my gym bag onto my bed I jumped out, shut the window, and raced to the main building. I met Umber outside of the classroom about one minute before the bell rang, it was a little moving that Umber had waited outside to make sure Turtle made it on time. Turtle bent over, panting, running wasn't exactly his forte.

"Thanks...for...waiting...for...me." Turtle gasped out, breathing heavily. Umber walked in, and just before Turtle put his foot in the door frame, the bell rang. That was either okay or really bad, he wasn't liking his chances. Luckily, it was Tsunami who was sitting at the desk in the front of the room. Dyed blue hair, and sapphire blue yoga pants and tank top. Turtle looked at Tsunami, waiting for her to yell, but she just smiled.

"Hey Turtle, Umber. No, you're not late. It's the first day, I'm not that strict." Turtle and Umber made their way to the two empty desks which were closest to the door. He looked around and saw five other students there. One was wearing all black and had a star struck expression, one who looked like a rainbow and was excitedly fighting around in her seat. He looked to their left, and saw two boys, one who was pretty tanned, sandy colored hair and clothes, which were shorts and a t-shirt, smirking at them in a casual way. To his side was a pale boy staring at his desk wearing icy blue clothes, a hoodie and jeans. Most of what Turtle could see was the boy's hair, combed forward and white, though slightly bluer than his backpack.

Wait, weren't there seven students to a class? Turtle looked around, and saw what he was looking for, near the back of the room, a girl with fire-y orange hair and red clothes. She was sulking, and looked angry. Turtle took his seat, and noticed that he was sitting next to the rainbow of a teenager. Tsunami looked at them all, beaming. As if she was glad she'd arranged their group with these students. She took a quick roll call, making sure that everyone was there. The midnight girl was named Moonwatcher, but she preferred to be called Moon. The rainbow girl was named Kinkajou, with the fire girl named Carnelian. The sand boy was named Qibli, and the ice boy was named Winter. Those weren't going to be very hard to remember, he had a knack for remembering names.

For that first class, they mostly talked about what it would be for, like turning in their homework, going over announcements, and talking about what exciting things were going on. To get to know each other better, Tsunami had them all say their favorite color and one thing interesting about them, starting on the left with Winter.

"Well, I'm not going to expose any of my secrets to any of _you_ ," Winter said pompously, Turtle was taken aback, he was expecting Winter to be, well, more introverted, "but my favorite color is blue, and freezing temperatures don't really bother me." He finished. Tsunami moved on to Qibli, though her expression showed that she was just as shocked as Turtle was.

"Eh, I'm pretty normal, but my favorite color is yellow, and I am a sandcastle _expert_ in case we ever go to a beach. Sand's the best." Tsunami smiled, and moved on to Moon.

"Umm...my favorite color is black, and I really like robotics and computers." she answered quietly. Next was Kinkajou.

"I like all colors! I don't have a favorite, though if I had to choose one, it would be Qibli's, yellow. Hmm, something interesting about me, well, I like climbing, and I'm pretty good at parkour." Now Turtle.

"Oh geez, well, my favorite color would be green, and I like to go hunting for treasure, even if it's just cool looking rocks, like these." he said, and showed them the bracelet he had, there were six rocks in it, which he had chipped away from where a meteor had crashed, they were pretty special to him. Now it was time to learn a little more about a Umber.

"I guess my favorite color's brown, and I once had a pet baby alligator." he finished, ignoring the awed looks he got.

"Woah!" Kinkajou said, "an alligator? How long did you have it and what did you name it?"

"Well, I had it for a day, before my brother said it would grow to big and I needed to let it go, and for the time, I named it Scales."

"Creative." Qibli commented.

"Give me a break, I was six."

"You were?" Turtle asked.

"You can talk about Umber's gator later, it's Carnelian's turn." Tsunami pointed out, though Carnelian looked like she would have been happy not having to share. She remained silent for a few seconds.

"What's her favorite color? Will you tell us something interesting about yourself if we get it right?" Kinkajou asked. Carnelian didn't respond, she was just blankly staring at her desk, unmoving. Turtle scanned the expressions of the other students in the room. Winter looked understanding, as if he'd experienced this kind of situation before. Qibli looked expectant, like he wanted to know her better, so they could be friends.

" _Good luck with that."_ Turtle thought. Moon looked...scared? It was hard to tell. Kinkajou looked excited, like she had for the entire class. He glanced over at Umber, and he looked like he wanted to go and give her a hug and say that everything was okay. Wow, all these people who wanted to help Carnelian and be her friends, and she was pushing them all away. Turtle sort of got it, she might have trust issues, or maybe wanted to be left alone. Kinkajou started guessing colors,

"Green? Orange? Purple?" she asked, "is it yellow? You look like the kind of person who likes yellow." she giggle a bit after she said that, although that turned out to be a mistake.

"SHUT UP!" Carnelian yelled, "If I don't want to share anything, don't make me! I don't know why you care about me right now, because I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF YOU!" Everyone sat in silence, even Tsunami was too stunned to speak. After a few painstakingly longed moments, with Carnelian glaring at everyone, the bell rang, and she stormed off into the mass of students.

"Um...you guys have free period for the next class, we only have so many teachers." Tsunami said, composing herself for her next class. The six remaining students walked out, and started talking when they got outside when Qibli broke the silence,

"Well, she seemed, angry."

"Understatement of the year." Umber replied.

"We don't know what she might be going through though." Moon pointed out.

"Either way, I know that you're all going to say yes to this, even you Winter," Turtle said, resolute on this decision, "we're all going to try to be her friends, aren't we?"

Slowly, all of the, nodded, with Kinkajou being the first and Winter being the last.

"Well, anyone hungry?" Kinkajou asked, "We have an hour to eat."

"Sure, hopefully by next period, Carnelian will have calmed down." said Qibli. Together they walked to the cafeteria. There worked out a group name for if there were ever any school projects, and after much debate and a bit of joking. They settled on Jade Wings, which Moon said was based off of a book she'd read as a child but couldn't remember the name of. They ate for a bit, talking about random things, like one of the games on their computer that Moon had played and liked. Favorite foods, and some personal projects they had. Eventually, the bell rang, and the group went off to find Carnelian and finish the day…

 **Well that was fun! What did you think? Remember, leave a review for a chance for the next chapter to be your idea! Thanks to SageandSky for the suggestion that this chapter be on Turtle, it was fun to write. Stay tuned for more to come. AshEmber OUT!**


	3. Unlikely Conditions

**Hey peoples! I'm back again, and with another chapter to this story! Also, wow, someone followed the story? This is awesome! I've just started this account too! Thanks a whole bunch for your support!**

 **Saiba-of-the-Icewings won the chapter one challenge. Sometime soon he'll be implemented into a future chapter. Not sure when, but soon. Don't worry, more challenges are ahead. Suggestion for this was for Qibli to go on his own mission to make Winter his friend while helping Carnelian.**

 **Point of view for this story is...Qibli!**

 **I don't know why you didn't already know this, but I don't own Wings of Fire.**

"So second period for us is history?" Turtle asked.

"Yep. Think Carnelian will be there?" Qibli replied.

"Yes," Moon said unexpectedly, "she will." Oh, um, alright. How did she know that? Qibli could tell many things about people by how they talked, how they acted, and with just one sentence, he could see where a person's been. He took into account everything about what they were doing, like Turtle said that he liked to go treasure hunting, but he never said anyone came with him. He likes to be alone when he does something, and is okay being overlooked by his parents.

But he couldn't figure out Moonwatcher. It was so weird. The way she said something, like she could tell what someone was thinking. He was fine with it, but honestly a little unsettled. It wasn't that he liked the way she looked at him when he joked, or how her hair caught the sunlight when they were walking. Just because she was pretty to him didn't mean anything just yet. She was just, confusing. One minute she'd be quiet, and the next she'd be passionately talking about robotics.

"So, this is the history classroom?" Winter asked. Qibli jumped at his chance to make Winter laugh.

"Based on how it says 'History' on the sign right there, I'm gonna say yes." Qibli looked at Winter expectantly, hoping he would laugh. He could see Winter looking at him, no emotion. No laughs, no chuckles. Alright, he'd have to up his game to get Winter to like him.

They walked into the classroom and saw the teacher, Webs, working on something at his desk. Qibli looked around, and saw the bright orange head of Carnelian buried in her arms at a desk. She didn't look up when they walked in, or when they took their seats. She only let out a muffled 'here' when Webs called her name. The class was composed of Webs droning on about how this class was going to be easy to pass if they studied hard and payed attention. He finished the class by saying they should start reading chapter one of their history books, as there would be a quiz the next Monday. That got a groan from Kinkajou and Turtle.

Next was gym, so Qibli was going to be able to see if Carnelian was friendlier when she was doing was he thought she would like. First they did a quick lap around the _massive_ gym. It was a lot bigger than Qibli thought it would be. As he was running, he noticed that Winter was racing him, and just smiled when Qibli shot ahead and looked back. Yes! I knew that guy was in there!

They did some other various exercises, and Qibli guessed that they were to determine how strict Tsunami should be with each of them. Winter and Carnelian proved to be excellent, moving fast and powerfully. They must have trained or exercised a lot when they were younger. Carnelian still seemed really grumpy the entire time, and Qibli was probably the only one who saw when she narrowly missed punching Winter's head.

Qibli, Umber, and Kinkajou did mediocrely when they did what Tsunami asked, slower and breathing more heavily than Winter and Carnelian. They still did pretty well, though. Turtle did pretty well at the beginning, but got tired extremely quickly, gasping for air at the end. Moon did her exercises quickly, but was shaking the entire time. He noticed, but he doubted anyone else did. She looked as if she wouldn't show that she was getting tired.

At the end, no one was sweating or smelled bad, but the legs of a few of them were shaking. Tsunami just had them either relax or mess around with the he basketballs until the bell rang.

"Finally! I was getting hungry!" Umber exclaimed.

"We had breakfast together only five hours ago, dude." Turtle pointed out.

"And snacks two hours ago." added Winter.

"Yeah well, I have a big appetite." he argued. A bit more fighting, and then,

"Can we just go?" Carnelian said unexpectedly. She talked! And she didn't yell at them!

"Sure, let's go." Qibli said hurriedly, trying to show that he cared for Carnelian, but the way it came out sounded a little like he was being a suck up. They went to the cafeteria and they asked for some food from the workers. He got a cheeseburger (couldn't think of a desert animal that's okay to eat, also that's not uncomfortable) and a soda, then went to where the others were sitting. Qibli noticed that there were actually very few students in the cafeteria for it's size. Everyone was seated together at one end of the table, with Carnelian by herself at the other end. They all are their food, and during it. Qibli noticed that Carnelian was edging closer the entire time. But the end, she was on their half of the table. Maybe they were growing on her.

The rest of the day was pretty boring, with not much else happening. At the end of the day, Umber asked if they wanted to go to a coffee shop that he had seen while he was driving here, as they had no homework. Everyone agreed, even Carnelian. Moon, Turtle, and Kinkajou went with Umber, and Winter and Carnelian went with Qibli. As they were driving, Winter and Carnelian seemed to be getting along, talking a bit about fighting sports, like martial arts, boxing, and wrestling.

"I have a feeling you two will form a 'strong' bond." Qibli joked, trying to make them laugh. This time, Winter doubled over in his seat, suppressing laughter. Carnelian chuckled a bit at it, too. They were both in there somewhere, he would just have to find a way to drag them out. Eventually, they reached their destination when Umber stopped at a building in front of them. They all hopped out, and looked at the place. It was kind of small, with the walls looking a little shabby.

"This is supposed to be the great place you were talking about?" Carnelian asked, skeptical.

"Hey, the food in there is much better than the looks, trust me," Umber insisted. They walked in, and noticed that although the place was clean, the furniture was a little worn. They were a couple of patches in the seats, and the couch was sagging. Bringing two tables together so they could all sit down, Winter started up a conversation,

"So, what did you guys think of the teachers?"

"Tsunami was nice." Turtle said.

"She's your sister." Kinkajou pointed out.

"I can still think she's nice." Turtle responded.

"Well," Carnelian said, "Webs was a bit boring, but he was really down to earth."

"What happened to the grumpy person we saw last night? I'm glad you changed, but what happened?" Kinkajou asked.

"I decided I'll see if you six are worth being nice to, and based on the car ride here, these two win so far." Carnelian said, jerking her head at Qibli and Winter.

"I'm flattered." said Qibli.

"So, anyone want a drink?" asked Umber.

"Sure." they replied. They all gave their orders, and Umber walked back with a tray of cups. Winter got an iced dark coffee. Qibli a piping hot vanilla steamer. Moon got a smoothie of chocolate and cherries. Kinkajou got a fruit smoothie. Carnelian sipped at a vanilla latte. Winter just got water, and Umber got a hot cocoa.

"You know, if they got new furniture in this place, and changed the sign from a coffee shop to a cafe like it is, they'd get a lot more customers." Turtle pointed out, gesturing to how they were the only ones there. Umber wasn't lying about the drinks, they were great. This place had the potential to become the most popular spot for their age group. After finishing their drinks, and talking for a bit about what they expected tomorrow, they got back into their respective vehicles and drove back to campus. Qibli phoned Umber on his car and put it on speaker, so they could all talk a bit more.

Upon getting back to the campus, Moon said she wanted to get started on her textbook, and disappeared into her dormitory. Winter said the same thing, and headed for his. Seizing the chance to become better friends with Winter, Qibli left, too. Getting to his room, Qibli saw Winter on his laptop, decorated with a polar Iceland.

"That doesn't look like reading a textbook." Qibli said. Winter jumped a bit, and then calmly replied,

"For all you know, I already finished it."

"Alright then...wait...did you just make a joke?"

"Maybe."

"Yes! I knew you were friendlier than you seemed!"

"Don't worry, I'm still asking to change roommates." Qibli knew he wasn't being serious.

"Sure, sure." Need any help with anything?"

"Nah," he put on a pompous tone, "it's not like I would ask for help from _you_." Qibli broke down laughing at that. Winter looked like he had successfully held back his own laughs, and then broke down too. For a second they just kneeled on the floor, trying to get their breath back.

"Well, I'm gonna read my textbook. You go back to what you were doing." Qibli said, getting his book out of his backpack. By the time he had finished the thirty pages that Webs called a chapter, it was about nine at night. He saved the notes that he had been taking on his laptop, and shut it down, then put it on charge. Winter stayed on his laptop for a while after, doing who knows what.

"Hey Winter."

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing on your laptop?"

"Oh, I'm uh...writing a book." he answered as if he didn't want Qibli to see it.

"What's it about?"

"It's about someone who can use magic, but as they use it, they become more and more insane. So when the character used it too much, the story got confusing, I was just fixing it up, to make it easier to understand."

"Oh, do you think you might publish it?"

"Maybe…"

"I'll be the first to buy a copy." Winter looked taken aback,

"Really? My family always said my writing was terrible, you're the first person to...wow."

"Your family sounds great."

"They are!" Winter said, annoyed, "They train me in martial arts, and one day, I'm gonna become the best fighter out there."

"Then why'd they send you here?"

"I...I wanted to come, and convinced them that I would go and not care about a single person. Guess I failed at that, huh?"

"That's your choice, Winter. I know which one will gain you friends, but it's your choice."

"With you here, I don't think you let me have a choice."

"Sure don't buddy."

"Thanks for not giving up."

"Dude, it's the second day. I don't give up after only that long."

"Yeah, I guess, it feels like we've been here forever, yet it's only been a day. Weird, isn't it?"

"That's what friends are for."

"Heh, night, Qibli."

"Night." Winter reached over for his lamp, and shut it off, and Qibli did the same. This was going to be a long year, a fun one, but no doubt a long one.

 **Well, that was...weird. I don't think I'm gonna write about the classes they take in the day anymore, unless you people want me to. Any suggestions for the next chapter? If you want me to do a ship, then tell me about it, I might make a book just for that. Review for a chance of the next chapter being your idea! Also, sorry for the cringe filled jokes, I'm bad at them. If you've been wondering why I post at like, two in the morning my time. It's because I have insomnia, and when I'm lying awake in my bed, ideas strike me. See ya next chapter. AshEmber OUT!**


	4. Pranks, Ice Cream, and a Threat

**Wow, you guys are just...amazing. I can't believe this, you all have given a lot of support and guess what? Saiba's in this chapter and I've got another challenge! Whoever wins it gets to have a dragon or OC of their choice implemented into a future chapter, the challenge will be mentioned at the end. Also, I've gotten a request for Moonbli and a request for Winterwatcher...uh...oh no. Maybe I'll just make a seprate story for ships...good idea? PM me if you think so! Onto the story...happy reading!**

 **Point of view for this story is…Winter!**

 **I don't own Wings of Fire, Tui T. Sutherland does (why do I have to keep saying this?)**

"Hey, Qibli, turn off the sun for me, would ya?" It was morning, and it was way to bright for Winter's liking. When he woke up, it was just a nice, gradual transition from dark to light, but then again, he lived in a place where the sun came up at around nine in the morning instead of six, and slowly.

"Wait, did, you just make a joke? Seriously, what's wrong with you?"

"I've got Qibli-itis! Oh no!"

Qibli chuckled, "Alright, I'll take you to the psychiatrist soon enough."

Winter snorted, "Fine."

"Now get up!"

Winter was surprised by the sudden yell, and fell out of his bed, onto the hard floor.

"Ow." he mumbled. Qibli then broke down laughing and Winter shot up and glared at the laughing teen,

"Now you listen here, I don't get laughed at, especially when it's someone as childish as you."

Qibli didn't look fazed at all, "Well, you're cured, now get changed, seeing you in penguin pajamas is tempting me to laugh again."

With that, Qibli dashed out of the room. Winter, mumbling to himself, went to check the time. It was weird for Qibli to have his backpack on when he was woken up...unless…

" **(censored)**!" It's ten minutes until school starts!"

Winter shot around the small room gathering his clothes from the closet, making a bit of a mess. Tidiness would have to wait for later. Eventually, at about two to eight, according to the clock, Winter had his ice blue hoodie, some jeans, and his backpack on, ready to go. Stressing, shooting out the door, track running out the dormitories, and bee lining it down the path to the main building.

 _Come on! I need to hurry!_

"Oh, hey Winter! Come on! Bell's about to ring!" Qibli yelled from the school entrance. Oh no. No students were even at the doors, he was _really_ late. Qibli started running down the hall with Winter. Honestly, Winter was a little touched that Qibli waited for him, but he wouldn't admit that in front of anyone else. They made it past all the rooms, finally ending up at the one they needed. Winter checked his watch, throwing open the door, and realized something…

He was an hour early…

"Qibli, anything you'd like to tell me?" Winter fumed.

"Oh, nothing, wait, I may or may not of set the clock on your desk ahead an hour, does that count as something you'd want to know." he replied, with the tone of someone who was trying to keep a straight face.

"Qibli!" Winter screamed at the top of his voice. He wouldn't be surprised if his parents back home in the tundra heard him. Qibli started running down the hall, back towards the entrance.

 _Come on! Why would he pull that? Grr…_

Winter muttered to himself angrily about things that he wasn't even paying attention to. Walking back to the entrance of the building. Slamming the door open, he was blinded by the rising sun, but didn't really care. He stomped over to a bench and whipped out his cell phone. Dialing an old friend.

"Hey Winter, what's up?" Saiba said through the other end.

"Saiba, how are you? Your inventions selling okay?"

"Good as ever, but then again, I could use help. Bet I could get that from halfway across the country from you, heh."

"Saiba, sorry if this sounds rude, but I don't want you getting all mopey depressed on me right now. I need a bit of advice."

Saiba stayed silent for a few moments, then replied, as if he didn't care what Winter had just said,

"And that is?"

"How would you deal with someone who's wasted your time, laughed at you, and then ran away from you?"

"That's an...odd question, Winter."

"Yeah, but at the same time, I feel oddly...tempted to just forget about it."

"Wait, lemme guess, this guy's your roommate?"

"Maybe."

"Then I get the but where he ran away from you."

"Hey!"

"I mean it Winter, open up a little more to others, even if they waste your time, it's not time wasted. You might help someone, and maybe let them get all mopey depressed sometimes." that came in like a knife to the chest.

"Saiba, I'm...I'm sorry about what I said."

"That's alright, Winter."

"Well, thanks for your time Saiba, see you around."

"Or hear you around." and with that, Saiba hung up. Knowing him, he was about to go and work on another machine. He was sadly an orphan, and was getting money to but his own place. Being old enough to live on his own, and being the brainiac he is, a Winter doubted he'd have trouble. Then again, what happened a few years ago to his father, it was awful to hear. Even more awful that his parents wouldn't take a 'low life' like him into their home.

Pondering for a moment on where Qibli ran off to, Winter tried to kill some time by playing a song he liked. It was the final enemy music of an eight-bit indie game where someone stole the lives of countless others so he could become all powerful. Even though the tale of the sequence was a bit grim. Winter liked the song. It made him feel like he was more than what his parents told him he was. Life in the tundra was tough. It was be the best out of everyone you know or you'll amount to nothing.

A little barbaric for a modern society.

"Hey! Winter!" a voice piercing through the music caused Winter to look up a tree, and see Qibli sitting on a branch.

"Qibli!" Winter yelled in a halfhearted angry voice, "Why'd you wake me up so early?"

"You were really grumpy yesterday when you woke up, so I thought I'd help you get onto a school schedule, and why not pull a parang while I'm at it?" he explained, swinging from the tree branch to land in front of the bench that Winter was on.

"That prank was actually pretty good, Qibli." Qibli was taken aback by Winter's words.

"Wait, what? I was _not_ expecting you to say that."

"It was...good job."

"Uh...Winter? You in there?"

"Yep. Just had a chat with a friend."

"Oh, alright." with everything figured out. Winter and Qibli went to have some breakfast. Winter getting cereal, and Qibli getting some bacon. It was actually kind of comforting knowing that the chef, Clay, gave all the food for free, with the limit of one entree, one side, and one drink per meal. It made funds a lot less worrying. As Winter and Qibli were walking to a table, they noticed someone they knew, Moonwatcher. In Winter's eyes, she was very graceful in how she moved, and being mysterious made her even more intriguing. It was weird, but Winter thought he had a crush on her.

"Hey Moon!" Qibli called. She looked up from her laptop, doing who knows what, and smiled, she smiled, at Winter!

"Hi Qibli, Winter, you two are up early." she observed.

"So are you." Winter pointed out. Did that sound jerky? Oh no, "I'm sure you had reasons, Qibli woke me up early for a prank."

"It was to get you on schedule!" Qibli reminded him.

"And nah, I just woke up because I prefer to be alone." Moon said.

"I get it, crowds aren't my thing, either." said Winter.

"Are you two kidding?" Qibli exclaimed, dumbfounded, "You don't like being around other people? You can learn so much about them, where they've been, what they've done, even who they've met. They could be an old friend, a family member, or even a celebrity. You don't like being around others?"

"Well, I'm just not one for others, maybe a few friends, but not too many people." Winter said, "Plus, I don't really live in an area with lots of people."

"I just…" Moon faltered, as if she was trying to figure out what to say, "They...they give me headaches." she finished, although Winter guessed that there was more to the story, and Qibli probably did, too.

"Anyway," Winter switched the conversation topic, not wanting to make Moon uncomfortable, "What are you doing on your laptop?"

"Just reading." she replied.

"Mind if we sit with you?" Qibli asked.

"Not at all." Moon said with a smile. They ate in silence for a while, Winter listening to that song from earlier with headphones. A few minutes after Winter and Qibli had thrown away their empty plates, two other people walked into the cafeteria. Turtle and Umber.

"So you just keep moving and you won't drown?" Umber asked, as if they'd been having a conversation while they walked.

"Yes, but calmly, thrash around too much, and it's dangerous...hey look! It's Winter, Qibli and Moon!" Turtle said to Umber. Waving to the three at the table. Qibli waved back. Winter wondered what they were doing, swimming? Only Umber's hair looked wet, and Umber didn't look as if he'd moved for the past half hour.

"So, can we join the early bird club?" asked Umber, joking.

"Sure, what about Carnelian and Kinkajou, anyway?" Qibli replied.

"Carnelian is _not_ a morning person, and Kinkajou just said she was building up enthusiasm for the day." Moon answered.

"Does Kinkajou even need any more enthusiasm than she already has?" Winter asked. They all just stared at him. Winter shrunk back in his seat, trying to make himself look small. Why was he embarrassed? He didn't know these people!

"Oh hey! Would you look at that, it's ten to eight!" Qibli said, saving Winger from their stares. Winter let out a quiet thanks. Everyone gathered their things, and as Moon walked off to check on her roommates, Winter, Qibli, Umber, and Turtle walked to class. Students were heading into the building, unlike an hour ago, when Winter thought it was eight. Classes started, with everyone being on time.

Nothing too interesting happened during the day, except for another small outburst from Carnelian when she found out that she was the only one who hadn't read her history chapter yet. Eventually, they reached the end of the day. No new homework, no impending tests. Winter suggested going to get something to eat. Having some cash with him, and everyone agreed. Instead of going to the coffee shop, like yesterday. He took them to get some ice cream. Winter also offered to drive everyone in his seven person car, which they agreed to as well. When they got there, Winter ordered a plain vanilla, Turtle got some cotton candy flavored. Qibli got mint chocolate chip. Moon get red velvet. Umber got chocolate. Carnelian got strawberry, and Kinkajou got mango with sprinkles. They ate their frozen treats outside, cooling them off from the late summer/early fall heat.

Heading back, they also stopped at a retro arcade, where Carnelian showed that she was really good at pinball, and then stopped at a park, just walking around for a bite sharing jokes, having a good time. It was so weird, everyone barely knew each other, yet it seemed as if they'd been friends since grade school. Completely different people. Blue clashing with orange, white clashing with black, tan clashing with brown, and rainbow clashing with...everything. The oddest group, and all friends. Eventually, they got around to going back to the school, and Winter waved the others goodbye, going to park his car. Walking back into campus, he was stopped by a couple of other students.

"Hey, if it isn't that quiet icy kid who's mushy around others." a group of rather muscular teenagers walked up to Winter, with obvious ill intentions.

"Hi there, can I help you, I know that you can help me, by going away." Winter said, trying to keep fear out of his voice. The guy in the lead was wearing all black, looking as if he could knock Winter out in one punch. Sure, Winter was tall, but nowhere near as tall as this guy. Following him were a girl wearing blue and green, and a guy in orange and red. All of them were wearing leather, and looked menacing.

"You're gonna regret saying that to us, you know." the girl said.

"Look, what do you want from me?" Winter asked, almost pleading.

"Don't play dumb with us," said the lead, "We know you're related to top ranking officials in the tundra area-"

"How'd you know that?" Winter asked accusingly, then slapped himself in the face, realizing he'd just blown any cover he had.

"Look, we want money, and maybe a little power, and you're gonna give it to us." said the orange boy.

"No I'm not." Winter said honestly.

"If you don't, we'll hurt that girl you're eyeing, what's her name, Moonwatcher? Or what about your roommate, Qibli?" Winter froze at the words of the lead, they had him right where they wanted him, in a place he never thought he'd be.

"Alright, fine, I'll come with you." said Winter, putting his hands up, "I won't run."

"Oh, we'll make sure that doesn't happen." said the blue girl, jerking her head to the left. Winter turned around to see a flash of brown, and then a painful blow to the head. Blinding white light filled his vision, and then, everything went black as Winter lost consciousness.

 **What? I wanted to give it a story! Leave a review if there's something you want me to change. Have a request for a story? PM me and it might happen! Also, try and guess what's gonna happen, oh, and sorry for the cliffhanger. I'll update soon (I hope). Anyway, the challenge is to guess what song Winter was listening to. Happy searching! Until next time!**


	5. A Calling of Pain

**Wow, the amount of support you guys are giving this series is amazing! I cannot believe this! Thank you all...so...much. So, a guest won the challenge, just the only person named Guest. So let me know what character or OC you want me to include! Good job guessing Hopes and Dreams correctly! Bye the way, let me repeat, the only way to get an OC in a chapter is if you win a challenge, not by asking for it. Sorry to anyone who did or will try by doing that. Next two updates are on Crashing Waves, another story. Please check that one out, too!**

 **Point of view for this story is…Kinkajou!**

 **It's Opposite Day, so I can safely say that I own Wings of Fire! (I really don't, don't rant on me because of a joke please)**

Wait, what?" Kinkajou yelped. Qibli had crashed into the girls dormitory building yelling that he wanted to see Kinkajou, Moon, and Carnelian, bringing Turtle and Umber with him, they all looked worried.

"Winter hasn't come back from the parking lot yet!" Qibli yelled frantically, "I doubt he got lost for an hour, something's happened!"

"Hold on, have you tried calling him?" Moon asked, with a concerned look on her face, as if she understood everything Qibli was going through that minute.

"Of course I've tried calling him, he picked up, and all I could hear was blackness and little bit of muffled talking, I think he's been kidnapped or something!"

"Qibli, calm down." Kinkajou said, trying to sound reassuring, but it seemed to only make Qibli angry.

"Calm down? How the heck am I supposed to do that?" Qibli screeched, no doubt waking up everyone in the building, "My best friend's in danger and he might even be killed!"

Kinkajou was a little affected when Qibli mentioned 'best friend.' once, she had hid for about three weeks to see if others really cared about her. Camping up in the mountains near her home, she never noticed a single person look for her. Eventually, a nice girl named Glory found her, and angrily stated that no one went to look for her. Immediately Kinkajou took a liking to Glory, and the two became friends. On getting back, she went to talk to her best friend, Coconut, to see if he was worried sick.

He hadn't even noticed she was gone for three weeks.

"Qibli, we're gonna help you find Winter, no matter what." Kinkajou stated.

"Yeah, we are." agreed everyone else, including Carnelian. Qibli took a few deep breaths to calm him down, and then asked,

"Moon, do you think that you can track Winter's phone?"

"That depends, what model is it?" she replied.

"Um, I think it's a Ice-phone seven." Qibli answered.

"That one should work just fine."

They all went to Moon, Kinkajou, and Carnelian's dorm, and Moon whipped out her laptop, and started up a program. She was able to locate it, and it was moving, fast, as if it was in a speeding car.

"Uh oh." she muttered.

"What?" Qibli asked frantically.

"Qibli, I think that you're either right, or horribly wrong." Moon replied nervously.

"Oh no, he's been kidnapped? For what reason?" Qibli yelled.

Almost as if on cue, Qibli's phone started ringing with Winter's name as the contact. It rang for a few seconds, until Kinkajou cautiously walked over and picked it up. Opening a video chat, Kinkajou saw a face that she'd never seen before, pressed up against the screen, he moved back, and Kinkajou saw someone, dressed in all black leather, and holding...a baseball bat. He stepped back further, and she saw Winter standing with his ankles strapped to the ground, and his hands strapped to the ceiling, unconscious.

She didn't even have to look to tell that her mood ring was flashing red.

"Hello, idiots." the man said in a deep voice.

"D-d-dad?" Moon asked with a hint of fear in her voice, suggesting that she really didn't like who was apparently her father.

"Hello, Moonwatcher…" the man said mockingly, "Look! It's me, your dad."

Morrowseer stepped back to reveal two other people, one in blue, and one in orange. The first female, and the second male.

"Orca!" Turtle yelled suddenly, "what are you doing?"

The girl in blue and green smiled creepily up at them

"Oh Turtle, don't you know? I'm not the sister you knew anymore, why do you think our mother kicked me out?"

The man in orange laughed, and said, "It's a good thing none of the, know me, I don't want my name revealed."

Even though she could tell he didn't want her to, Kinkajou said to Chameleon, "Chameleon? What are you doing with them? Why do you look like you live in the mountains?"

Chameleon looked at the screen with a glare that satisfied Kinkajou for some reason, "Oh, right, some people still remember me."

Qibli yelled at the screen in front of them, "Enough introductions! What are you doing with Winter!"

Morrowseer smirked at the six watching him, and said simply, "I know about you, Moon, I know what you can do, and someone wants that power. You can choose to reveal it to your friends, or you can choose to come quietly. I'm not going to spare your friend if you don't."

Everyone looked at Moon, and she looked terrified, Kinkajou dismissed it for now.

"You're lying," Kinkajou said to the screen, "Why would you want to trade off your daughter?"

"Foolish girl," Morrowseer snarled, "she isn't my daughter, she's nothing to me."

Looking over at Moon, Kinkajou could tell that even though she didn't look it, she was hurt by those words.

"Well, want to see why you should hurry over here, Moonwatcher?" asked Chameleon, "Because the entire time you stay safe, you friend's life become more and more endangered."

Chameleon finished his sentence by grabbing his own bat and smacking Winter in the stomach with it. He regained consciousness and recoiled as much as his trap would allow, screaming through his gag.

Kinkajou turned away, unable to look at the horror in front of her.

"Want some more reason?" Chameleon asked. He ripped off Winter's gag and hit him in the stomach again, this time Winter's screams ripped through the room, bloodcurdling, terrifying, loud screams. Chameleon kept hitting Winter in soft spots, everyone watching horrified.

"Stop! Please! Stop it! Stop! Stop! Stop!" Moon screamed, as if it was the last willing thing she'd ever say, "I'll come to you, just please, stop."

"Better hurry." Morrowseer said. Then the screen went black, and everyone was silently staring at Moon.

"What did he mean." Qibli asked, still shocked by what he'd just seen.

"I…" Moon said uncertainly, "I can r-r-read m-minds."

Everyone went dead silent, Kinkajou was uncertain whether or not to believe her. So she thought as loud as she could,

" _Say coconuts are better milk than apples."_

"Coconuts are better milk than apples." Moon said.

"Umm, Moon, do you need a doctor?" Umber asked.

"No, Kinkajou didn't believe me, and none of you do either, but I am going to go through with this, Turtle, and I'm going to make sure that Winter leaves before I go in, Qibli. This _will_ work."

"No, Moon, you're not doing that." Qibli said.

Flashes of the sounds of Winter screaming ripped through Kinkajou's mind, and Moon was no doubt getting that six times over.

"No, I have to do this." she said, putting on a resolute face.

Grabbing her laptop, and stealing Qibli's keys, Moon ran out the door before any of them could do anything. They all raced after her, following her to the parking lot, not saying anything, but thinking protests furiously.

Moon jumped in Qibli's car, and pushed on the gas before any of them were even to the car. Speeding off into the distance, Kinkajou thought one last thing, and hoped that Moon heard it,

" _Come back to us, please…you can do this."_

 **Wow, sorry that one was so short. I just don't really like transitioning from two different points of view in one chapter. I can't believe what I just wrote down, I'm the writer and I'm already hyped for the next chapter. Leave a review! Tell me what you think! And again, the guest that guessed correctly, what character do you want to see? Oh, and I'm changing the rating from K to K plus, thought it would be right. Have any ideas for a story? Give them to me, and I might just make it! See ya after I get around to publishing my next to chapters on Crashing Waves. Sorry I have to make you wait so long!**


	6. Saving Winter

**Ah! Forget Crashing Waves for now, I couldn't wait to upload this, hype alert! So, this is going to be a very action packed chapter, broken into two parts (sorry about that) and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I had writing it. Prepare, for Saving Winter!**

 **Point of view for this story is Moonwatcher!**

 **Bleh...mes noes ownies Wingies of the Fires**

It was almost pitch black on this road. Dark, dark as a what would be a black hole. No street lamps, no moonlight, no encouragement for what she was about to do.

This was it.

The moment she did what she'd always feared.

Revealing her secret to someone evil.

Who was she kidding, she didn't have the strength to do this! This was insanity! This was...this was…

This was what she had to do.

Tearing down the street towards her destination, Moon checked again on Qibli's GPS. She would pay later for any damage.

Eventually, after much reassuring, Moon saw a light ahead. It looked like this was where she needed to stop, pushing herself forward by remembering what Winter was going through.

" _I can do this...I can do this...I can do this…"_

She said those words, to herself, over and over again.

She pulled to a stop, to where she thought was an okay distance, and got out of the car.

Stepping forward with shaking legs, she came to a hooded red figure.

"So, you're here." Chameleon said savagely.

"Yes, I am." Moon said, trying her best not to sound scared.

Chameleon walked her down into a small tunnel, where the light seemed to be coming from, and into an opening, where the first thing she saw, was Winter. Red shone upon his ice blue hoodie, and his jeans. He looked as if he was about to pass out, and she could see many bruises on the parts of his skin that showed.

"Winter!" Moon screamed, and ran down, ignoring the others that were in the room.

"M-Moonwatcher?" Winter asked, trembling and shaky.

"Winter, it's me, it's, me...you're going to be okay, they're going to let you go, don't worry about me." Moon said, trying to calm him down, however, he jerked his head up alert.

"Moon, you're not surrendering yourself for me, are you?" he asked, obviously being hurt by the quick motions of his body.

"Yes, I am." she said resolutely.

A ringing laugh broke their conversation.

"Aww," Morrowseer said tauntingly, "what a touching reunion. Grab her."

With his words, Chameleon and Orca grabbed Moon's arms before she could do anything. She didn't put up a fight, just wanting to see Winter free.

"Just let Winter go." she pleaded.

"Should we do it?" asked Orca, holding Moon's left arm.

"She's not going to cooperate otherwise, so yes." Morrowseer said plainly. He walked over and undid his shackles, and shoved him off towards where she came in. He tried to come back, not wanting Moon to take his place, but he eventually was pushed all the way out by Morrowseer. She desperately hoped he would find the car not too far away.

"So, maybe we should let you know who you're going to be working for, she doesn't like explaining things." Morrowseer said, making sure that Winter wouldn't come back.

"You're going to be working for Scarlet." Chameleon said silkily.

"What?" Moon asked, genuinely confused.

"Scarlet, she wanted to bring back royalty. With her being in the royal bloodline, we could separate the types of people, and be sectioned, she would be in charge of the mountains." Morrowseer explained.

"Are you crazy?" Moon asked, "why would we need that?"

"She wants power, we want power, and also maybe a bit of money." Orca cooed.

"And what am I going to do to help?" Moon asked frantically.

"You'll tell Scarlet what she needs to say or do to fool her enemies, she has a lot in the government, you see." Chameleon goaded.

"I can tell why." Moon growled, "You'll never get me to do what you want."

She tried to prove this point by jerking away from her captors, to no luck.

"Oh, that's not a problem, we know how to break people, mentally and physically. How do you think we were able to get you here? By showing you your friend." Orca threatened. "And we can brainwash you, until you think that everything that Scarlet's doing is what you want, and you're her supporter."

"I'll never surrender to you." Moon spat. She could tell that what they were saying was what they were going to do, she could see the evil in their hearts. They just wanted power and money. She had always thought that nobody was pure evil. That everyone did things, things for what they believed in. Some good, and some bad. But for a reason. They three, and possibly four, did only what they did out of malice. She was wrong…

These three were pure evil.

She waited, and waited, ignoring what they said, everything they said about how great Scarlet was, and waited for an opportunity to break free. Eventually, she saw that Chameleon was less focused on her, and yanked her arm free of his relaxed grasp.

Punching Orca in the shoulder, Moon was able to escape their clutches.

"What the-" Chameleon started.

"Hey!" yelled Orca.

"Get her!" Morrowseer yelled. She broke out and ran off, hoping that they wouldn't try to hurt her.

" _After all, they won't hurt someone who they need as a tool."_ she thought grimly. Running faster than she thought possible, she tore down the street, keeping an eye out for any lights.

After what felt like ages, she saw the distant lights of a car. Not caring who it was, she approached it, hoping it would be someone friendly. When they pulled up, she saw someone in a ruby coated jacket and red sweatpants. They stopped to see who she was, which she found surprising, as she was wearing clothes as black as the night around them.

"Hello? Who are you? Do you need help?"

"Yes...please...can you take me to Jade Academy?"

"Yes, of course, hop in."

Moon jumped in the strangers car, exhausted, and they turned around. Moon didn't have the time to wonder why they were out on that lonely road in the middle of the night. The one good thing about the last few hours was that she didn't see any sign of Qibli's car.

"So, what happened? Why were you out here?" the stranger asked in a friendly voice, but for some reason it sounded fake to Moon, she ignored it.

"I'm...I'm not comfortable talking about it." she said.

"That's alright, I get it."

"You do?"

"Yes."

They drove in silence for a while more, the lights of the town getting closer and brighter the longer they moved.

A phone rang after a while, and someone spoke in a frantic voice about how they lost something important to them, and that they needed help. Eventually, the stranger just said two words,

"Don't worry."

As they got into the outskirts of town, Moon realized something. She couldn't read this lady's mind, it was just fuzz, like Turtle, but instead of hitting a soft, cushiony wall, it was hard, like a mental barrier.

"So...who are you?" Moon questioned.

"Oh, I'm just someone who wants to get by, maybe go big, get some power to be famous, big dreams is all." she said again in a voice that sounded fake for some reason.

They stopped at a gas station, and the lady reached into the side pocket, bringing out a towel and some liquid in a bottle.

"Hey, Moon?" the lady asked.

"H-how do you know my name?" Moon asked, shocked.

"Oh, it's nothing," the lady said, pouring the liquid on the towel. Moon was trapped, stuck in the car, it was locked, and she didn't know how to get out.

"S-stop, please." Moon said, trembling.

"Why would I do that?" she asked, with a voice that finally sounded real, as she pushed the towel to Moon's face, "After all, what comes next is going to be so thrilling."

 **Ahh! This is going to be awesome! Want to see more? Leave a review! This is going to be an amazing section to write. Leave a comment and/or a PM for ideas or support! Have any ideas for a fanfiction? PM me and maybe I'll write it! Argh! Sorry, but the next update might take a while. Second day of school and already five homework assignments and a test on Monday. See ya soon!**


	7. Saving Moon

**Ah, finally. I got a chance to write, and now I can finish part two of this highly anticipated chapter, at least for me it was. By the way, it's only my seventh day of school, and I already had to turn in an essay. Come on! Well...I don't really have anything else to say, here's the chapter!**

 **Point of view for this story is...Winter! (Surprisingly)**

 **Does it** _ **look**_ **like I'm Tui T. Sutherland? Stop thinking that I'm going to claim ownership of the series!**

Winter pulled into a halt at the parking lot in Qibli's car, maybe not as neatly as he usually would have done, but given his condition, any person with a brain could see why. He limped out of the car, and shut the door, locking the car, his mind brimming with only one thought,

" _I have to save Moon."_

She had sacrificed herself to save him...and he was about to get the support that he needed to save her.

" _I have to save Moon."_

He didn't really enjoy admitting it to himself, but he had a crush on her, and there was no denying it.

" _I_ have _to save Moon."_

Winter thought this to himself over, and over again, as he limped towards the boys' dormitory. The sun was starting to rise…

He doubted the teachers would consider a rescue operation worthy of a tardy.

Winter walked in, and used the key he found in Qibli's car, he had gotten his stolen by Morrowseer, to open their dorm room.

"Qibli!" Winter yelled as he saw Qibli hurriedly searching on his laptop on a find your phone app, it was tracking Winter's but it hasn't moved, he had gotten that stolen from Morrowseer as well.

"Winter!" Qibli jumped up in relief at seeing his friend, "Thank goodness you're both safe!" he stuck his head out the door to look for Moon, only to see that she wasn't there.

"Qibli?" Winter asked.

"Where's Moon? Oh ****! What happened to you? You look even worse than when we saw you on the video chat? Are you okay?"

"Qibli...ill be okay for now, we have to get Moon back from those...people."

"Wait…" Qibli widened his eyes in horror, "You mean she's still there?"

"Yes...she traded herself for me...I don't know if she's escaped."

"I saw her phone on the tracker, and it said it got away from where she stopped. After a while though, it started speeding back there."

"Oh no…" Winter said, "We have to get the others."

"On it…" Qibli said, and whipped out his phone and dialed numbers, presumably calling Kinkajou, Turtle, Umber, and Carnelian.

A few minutes later, they heard knocks on the door.

"Qibli, we're here." Kinkajou said. He opened the door, and everyone rushed in. Upon entry, Kinkajou squealed and hugged Winter, sobbing and laughing at the same time.

"I'm okay guys, don't worry...I'm okay."

Winter groaned a bit from pain as almost everyone in the room hugged him at the same time.

"Well," Winter said, wincing a bit, "Let's go save Moon."

Winter decided to sit in the back this time around, not wanting to drive. Qibli had searched his car up and down, thankfully having no dents, a quick wash and his car would be good as new. Winter sat in the least painful position possible on the right seat in the second row of Qibli's sports car as they went off a loaned road. Kinkajou sat on his left, being the smallest, and not caring about the middle seat. Umber and and Tuetle had somehow squeezed together on the left seat, and Qibli drove with Carnelian having shotgun. Winter stared at the strip of casinos and hotels in the distance, as far away as the eye could see, the land in between all desert. They had left the urban area, and were on the most important mission he'd ever been on, if the only one.

After about an hour of driving, they came across a light. They parked the car a ways away, and they went into a tunnel, hopefully where Moon was.

"Come on...don't you wish that life were easier?" a voice said in the distance.

"N-not with a ruler!" Moon shrieked.

"They could make all of your tough decisions, Moonwatcher." the voice said, with a slimey hint to it.

Everyone froze in their tracks, they could hear Moon, and someone trying to mentally break her.

Winter fumed, and knew he was about to do something he'd regret.

"How about pain?" the person said, making Winter's hair stand on end, "Will that work?"

"No! Please no! No!" Moon screamed as loud as she could.

"I'll take that as a yes." the voice sneered.

"NO! Someone...please...anyone…" Moon sobbed, "Help."

Winter didn't even realize he was shaking, running down the tunnel, the others behind him, stuck where they were with shock. He ran, as the light got brighter, into a blazing lay white room, where Moon was shackled to his previous prison.

With Scarlet torturing her. Holding a gun to her neck.

"STOP," Winter yelled, sprinting towards them. Scarlet whipped around, pointing the gun towards Winter, and pulled the trigger.

Blazing hot pain seared through Winters arm, using it to shield where she was pointing, his heart. There were broken bones and definite scarring, but he dashed on anyways, filled with adrenaline.

"What the…" Scarlet said, but was silenced as Winter body checked her. They both tumbled to the floor, as the rest of the group ran in.

"Winter!" Everyone screamed, and Qibli and Carnelian went to help him as Kinkajou, Turtle, and Umber worked to free Moon.

Blood was pouring from Winter's arm, but he didn't care. He cared about stopping this psychopath.

"If you keep holding me...I guess we'll both go down." Scarlet said with a manic expression. She pulled a switch that was on the wall, and the entire place shook, and water started dripping into the room.

"We're under the city water reserve, either we all die, or you die, which one?"

"I'm not going to lose to you!" Winter snarled, feeling the worst anger in the entire world.

"So be it. You will die, though, even if it's not directly by my hand."

"Run!" Umber screamed and water started to flood into the room, they had unshackled Moon, and started running out of the tunnel.

"What do you mean?" Winter growled, still pinning Scarlet to the ground, water rushing towards them.

"There was a deadly poison in that bullet." Scarlet said, snakes in her words.

Winter howled, and threw her into the wall farthest away from the tunnel, and sprinted towards it. The water was reaching his knees.

There was another,p boom, and another shake, and the poison was starting to take effect. Winter fell to his knees, crying. He had done it, but now he was going to die.

He crawled towards the tunnel, almost submerged in the water.

All of a sudden, the entire ceiling gave out, and the room flooded with water, shooting Winter out of the tunnel as he lost consciousness from the poison.

One thing was certain, Scarlet would never hurt anyone else again.

 **Okay...ill admit, that was a little violent even for me. Anyway, what do you think will happen? Want to request? This story has been so fun to write, and I really want to continue, I won't if no one wants it, though. And also, thank you all SO much for the support, I honestly cannot believe that 1,000 people took the time out of their lives to read this...it's amazing. Also, a new challenge, the winners for the old one, answer is Hopes and Dreams, didn't have an account, and never mentioned their OC. Where is Jade Academy located? Most of the hints for it were on the car ride. And also, a new rule, you have to have an account for me to include your character, so I can PM you. I also would prefer for your OC's personality to be on your Bio, so I can use it to the full extent. Happy searching! And a hint, the school is in an area using the Pacific time in the USA.**


	8. Snowfall in the Dark

**And here we are! The finale in the three part climax of the first story arc. There will be two more after this to conclude the first arc. So let me know with a review whether you want to see Jade Academy two (it's basically ten more chapters)! Also, Storm Warrior won the last challenge, but they just wanted bragging rights. Next challenge will be in chapter nine. Once again, let me know if you want to see a second arc! Now...enjoy Snowfall in the Dark.**

 **Point of view is Moon for this one!**

 ***Clears throat* … I DON'T OWN WINGS OF FIRE!**

"I don't know how, but he's still breathing." said the doctor, examining the limp form that was Winter's.

Moon shuddered, and lifted her head, "You mean he's gonna be okay?"

"He might be, we'll have to inspect this poison a bit more, first." he said as he injected a needle into his puncture wound.

Moon and the others were surrounding Winter's hospital bed, seeing his beaten, broken form. It was so hard to imagine that the kind, slightly pompous boy she...didn't know how to word the feeling would look like this.

"Winter…" Moon sobbed, and broke down crying again.

The others looked on solemnly at the two of them, and after moments which felt like centuries, Qibli spoke up.

"Winter's strong, if he's the person I think he is...he won't give up so easily."

" _I hope…"_ he thought afterward.

Moon glanced over at him, and saw Carnelian put her head on his shoulder,

"I hope you're right…" she whispered.

Turtle and Umber looked stony faced while looking at him, while Kinkajou looked like Moon felt, like the world was falling apart.

"That Scarlet is so _evil!"_ Kinkajou screamed, tears streaming down her face.

No one said anything...words weren't needed.

"I'm done, I'll go inspect it now, I'll be right back." the doctor said, and left the room, leaving them in silence.

It was a few hours later, the sun was fully risen, none of them had gotten any sleep, and the doctor still hadn't returned. Finally, Moon worked up the courage to say something she needed to say,

"This is all my fault!" she cried, getting shocked looks from the others, "If I didn't have these _stupid_ mind reading abilities, none of this would have ever happened!"

Turtle stood up, looking stern, and said quietly but firmly,

"Moon, this is _not_ your fault, you can't change the way you were born, and what gifts you have. This Scarlet woman is the one to blame, and honestly, she deserves what happened to her."

They hadn't seen Scarlet come out of the tunnel when Winter did with the rush of water. Luckily Umber caught him to prevent too much damage.

Turtle's phone later said that she wasn't found in the tunnel, but they couldn't find the secret room they kept mentioning...Moo pen thought it caved in with the water.

Scarlet was gone, and that was bittersweet. She didn't have to pay for her crimes, and she died with satisfaction, knowing that she had done something terrible in return for her not getting what she wanted.

The door flew open, and the doctor was there, beaming.

"You're friends going to live," he said, "the poison was one that his body could fight against. It's supposed to freeze your body, but he grew up in the tundra, so he could fight that."

"Are you serious?" Kinkajou cried, a different kind of tear running down her face, "He's going to be okay?"

"Yes. But there might be...side effects."

"If he lives," Moon said, determined, "that's all that matters."

It was a week after Winter had been hospitalized, and he was waking up. Moon was right there by his side. The others had gone back to school, but Moon was exempt, for going through a traumatic expirience.

He stirred, and slowly opened his eyes, to see Moon's smiling face, about as happy as...well...nothing could compare.

"M-M-Moon?" Winter said weakly.

"Winter, it's me. You're safe, and you're a hero." Moon said, crying just like Kinkajou had a week ago.

"I did it? Everyone's safe?"

"Yes...and Scarlet's never going to hurt anyone ever again, she'll leave us alone, and we're safe."

Winter laughed in a small voice, and said,

"That's great, because when I'm better...I have something to tell you."

"I'll be waiting Winter, I'll be waiting."

She didn't even have to read his thoughts, they matched exactly what he said. She would have to tell him eventually, but for now, she'd let him sleep.

It was two days after Winter had regained consciousness, and he was making a fast recovery. By the first afternoon, he could walk again.

Moon, Qibli, Umber, Turtle, Kinkajou, and Carnelian were in math class with Sunny, going over how to find the volume of a sphere by working backwards.

This was the last period of the day, and it was ten minutes until the bell rang.

Five minutes left. They had just finished taking notes, and Sunny was passing out a homework sheet with some problems relating to what they had learned.

"Alright, now I know you all want to see Winter, but be gentle, okay?"

"Of course." they replied.

She gave them an extra sheet for Winter, and let them out before the bell, so they could be ahead of the crowd.

As they exited the doors, the bell rang, and they rushed over to Winter's van, so that she could lie down if needed.

Qibli put his keys in the ignition, and they went off towards the hospital.

"Hey guys." Winter said from his bed as they rushed in.

He looked as good as before he was kidnapped, albeit his hospital robe.

"Are you okay?" Qibli asked tentatively.

"Other than these clothes, yes. Where's my hoodie?"

"Back at the dorm." Qibli laughed out seeing Winter was okay.

"Well TGIGUITT, huh?" Winter said.

"Uh...what?" Turtle said, confused.

"Thank goodness I grew up in the tundra." Winter explained.

That got everyone in good spirits, and they stayed by his side, until one by one, everyone else left, leaving just Moon and Winter.

"So…" Moon said shyly, "you said there was something you wanted to tell me?"

"Umm...yeah." he murmured.

"So what is it?" Moon pressed.

He sighed.

"Alright, I think I proved this a while ago, but you know I'd do anything for you...right?"

"Winter, what are you saying?" Moon asked, feeling her insides clamp up.

Winter put on a resolute face, and said, catching his words in his throat.

"M-Moonwatcher, will you g-go out with m-me?"

 **Ooh! Should we do Winterwatcher, and have Moon say yes? Or something else, let me know! Once again, let me know if you want to see a second arc in this story as well through a review! I appreciate every one! Thanks again for all the support! I'm glad you enjoy my story and all I have left to say is I'm coming out with a new one soon that will BLOW...YOUR...MIND!**


	9. Winter's Return

**Hello again from Las Vegas! Guess what? Another challenge! I'll have it at the end! Once again, I'm thinking about making a second arc for this series, and I've decided. If I get five or more reviews asking for it I'll make a second arc, if it's four or less, I'll move on to something new. Like the new story coming out possibly soon, I'm not sure if I can get it working though, I'll let you know next chapter! Want to see a second story arc?**

 **Point of view for this chapter is...Carnelian (cause I felt like it)**

 **Me: Hey Starflight, do I own Wings of Fire?**

 **Starflight: No**

 **Me: I thought so**

Everything was back to normal...right? No more insane to be queens, no more video chats of torture, and no more freezing up poison...Carnelian couldn't believe Winter went through all of that. It was close to nine at the academy, and Winter should have been coming back soon with Moon.

Tired of waiting, Carnelian snatched up her phone and impatiently dialed Moon's number.

 _Ring...ring...ring..._

"Hey Carnelian, what's up?" Moon's voice said through the other end.

"Where are you two?" Carnelian snapped.

"We're just leaving the hospital...paperwork takes _forever_."

"Ok, I'll see you when you get here."

 _Beep._

Back to waiting...Carnelian's least favorite thing to do.

She couldn't shake this feeling in her head.

The feeling that she knew Scarlet from somewhere.

Was it a relative? No, her family was bad tempered, but not _evil_.

A political figure? No, the most important one was Ruby…

Wait…

Ruby! That's where she knew it from, someone named Scarlet was Ruby's mother!

And she had wanted to throw over her own daughter…

That's it...she had to call her.

 _Ring…ring...ring…_

"Hello?" Ruby's voice said, "Carnelian? Is that you?"

"Yeah it's me." Carnelian replied, "Have you heard about Scarlet?"

"Yes...how she died."

"Anything else?"

"That boy Winter…and that girl Moonwatcher."

"Why would she want to be a queen?"

"She's always had a thing for power, and torture. Being a royal figure would mean she could do those things without punishment."

"I've seen that she likes torture, alright."

"What about her followers? I haven't heard anything from them…"

"Apparently one was Moon's father, one was Turtle, my classmate's, sister, and one used to live in the rainforest."

"I know that one, Morrowseer."

"Moon's dad?"

"Yes, he came to visit me one day telling me to be careful."

"Huh...do you think he could be a spy?"

"I don't know."

"School's very weird so far."

"Carnelian, I've got to go, just look out for yourself, and your friends, okay?"

"Yes, I will."

"Bye."

 _Beep!_

Ugh! And _back_ to waiting. Carnelian was tempted to shake Kinkajou out of her rainbow colored bed so that they could suffer together, but she wouldn't do that...she'd stayed up all night for who knows how long. Winter even commented that she looked like his sister, Icicle, did once after staying up for a week. She'd probably done that, even.

Carnelian tried to pass the time by taking out her laptop and researching about that poison, how deadly it was, how valuable it was, and side effects.

So it was called sub-tonic, a freezing poison, it was very cheap, but valuable in certain places, highly illegal, and had side effects of…

Oh no…

There were headaches, excessive bleeding, and some other things, but the worst of all.

Winter would be fully color blind...forever…

How did a poison even _do_ that? Messing with your vision that awfully…

At least he would still be able to see…

 _Knock knock knock._

"Carnelian! Kinkajou! I'm back!" Moon called. Carnelian opened the door for her and let her in.

"So...how's Winter?" Carnelian asked.

"He's looking fine, but he seems like he's dealing with something he won't talk about."

"I know what it is…"

"What?"

"He'll be color blind, forever…"

"What?"

"I know."

"That's awful! Nothing worse though, right? Have you been researching it?"

"Yes, but it doesn't look like there's anything else permanent, but it's highly illegal."

"I can see why!"

"I know."

"Well, if nothing else, we should get some sleep, and I'm glad to see that Kinkajou's getting some, and she should probably stay that way tomorrow, too."

"Good idea." Carnelian said, flopping into her bed without changing her clothes.

She fell asleep almost instantly.

Carnelian was in the same white room, horror flooding her mind, and seeing terrible sights. Winter was there, getting shot with the sub-tonic infused bullet, and she couldn't do anything. Moon was strapped in shackles, and she couldn't do anything.

Worst of all…

She was helping Scarlet, pushing Winter to the ground, pulling out a gun, and pointing it at her friends, pulling the trigger four times, as Qibli, Kinkajou, Turtle, and Umber fell, dead.

She couldn't do anything.

Laughing, she put her hands around Winter's neck, choking him until he lay limp, and finishing it by putting another bullet in him, this time his head,

She couldn't do anything.

She saw herself walk over, help Scarlet up off the ground, and go over to Moon, seeing her horrified face, and her screaming.

She couldn't do anything.

Moon screamed about how Carnelian betrayed them, and she would never help as there was nothing else left to live for.

She couldn't do anything.

She watched as her own figure pulled out her gun, and put the last shot in Moon's head, killing her.

She couldn't do anything…

"AH!" Carnelian screamed, leaping out of bed.

The sun was rising, it was early in the morning.

She looked at Moon and Kinkajou, who she'd just murdered...no...it was a dream...nothing could happen.

She decided to take a walk, and try to calm herself down.

Getting outside, she saw Winter on a bench under a tree, she walked over to him.

"Hey Winter." she said softly, still scared of the nightmare she'd had.

"Oh..hey...uh…" he trailed off.

"Carnelian."

"Oh...hey Carnelian, it's a lot harder to notice you without your orange hair." he chuckled, as if expected her to be surprised, but was surprised himself when she said,

"I know, that poison's vision side effect is awful...do you think you'll be okay?"

"Of course." he said, somewhat depressed, "It's just color."

"Alright, so what are you doing up so early?"

"Turns out when you're in the hospital for a week doing nothing, you get restless." he joked.

"Qibli, what have you done with Winter?" she said back. He laughed a bit. The. His face fell, and some tears streamed out of his gray eyes.

"Winter?" Carnelian asked.

"I-I-I'm sorry."

"No, keep crying, no one will judge you."

He did, he cried silently, putting his head on her shoulder as she patted his.

She let him cry, letting out all the troubles he'd gone through.

"Y-you know wh-what?" he asked, choking on his words.

"Yeah?"

"It was worth it…" he said with a smile.

She understood. The way Moon and talked about Winte rathe previous week had led her to believe that they would fall into a relationship. Come on...they both gave their lives for each other, so it was kind of obvious.

"You go...Winter, you go…"

They sat there is silence for a while, and Winter asked, "Do you want to see a show with me tonight?"

"Uh...sure." she replied, nervous.

"Don't worry, I'm inviting everyone."

"Oh, okay." Carnelian said, sounding relived.

The rest of the day went on with everyone he knew welcoming Winter back, and then ending with a trip uptown to see the show Winter had planned. Everyone agreed, and they saw an amazing acrobatics performance where these two twins got separated and reunited to take down an evil villain. It was a very heartwarming performance, and a nice change of pace from the depressing feeling of the last week.

Everything was back to normal, and everyone was safe. No hanging threat loomed over everyone, and everyone was alive. Carnelian slept peacefully for the first time that week, and everyone knew that everything was going to be alright.

 **Wow...that was...to me...very emotional. Probably because I feel like I relate to these characters. So, the challenge was to guess the show that the group watched! A hint, the company that made it is known as** _ **'The Circus of the Sun.'**_ **Happy searching for that. One last time, if I get five reviews or more asking for it, I'll make a second arc. And if not, the next chapter will be like a curtain call, and special thanks. See you very soon.**


	10. Season One Finale

**Yes! The fifth vote came in! And pretty quickly, too! Thanks** _ **so**_ **much for all the support for the series, and today, this is the FINALE OF THE FIRST ARC! Sorry if it's short, it's sorta like an epilogue, so…**

 **Anyway, thanks again for all the support on the series so far, and next week, I'll have the eleventh chapter out and ready for reading! Thanks again for letting me continue this! Winter-Watcher Forever's character will be in the next chapter, sorry about that, and oh yeah, he won, the answer was Ka. Any ideas for a new story?**

 **Point of view for this chapter is...Morrowseer?**

 **Aargh! Seriously! I don't own Wings of Fire, just stop pestering me!**

 _Grr, come on, she's got to be alive. She has to be!_

Morrowseer was trying to find a way into the collapsed water reserve and find Scarlet, whether she was dead or alive.

If she was alive…

He'd hate to see how angry she would be.

"Hey Chameleon! Have you finished setting up the explosives?" called Orca.

"Yep! Just wait for me to get out first, this should just take out the wall of rubble!" he called back.

Morrowseer kept pacing as Chameleon ran out, and Orca pulled the trigger for the dynamite.

With a ear splitting _CRASH_ the wall was destroyed.

Upon walking inside, they could see that the tunnel was extremely dark, wet, and empty.

Lighting up a match, they saw the pristine walls of their hideout turned gray, and cracks all over the wall.

 _Dang it Scarlet! Why'd you have to pull that lever?_

Morrowseer had no doubts in his mind that if Scarlet was still alive, that she would find a way to kill his daughter and her friends, even if she could be useful.

Not that he cared.

They walked around for a bit, putting down candles to light up the place. When everything was bright enough to see, they noticed a limp figure against the wall farthest away from the tunnel.

It was Scarlet…

She was barely breathing, breathing ragged and harsh. She had a dark spot on her head that looked like the color of the one on the wall, and it had a red Inge to it, even deeper than her hair. She was bruised all over, and was in a near death state.

"Ah!" Chameleon jumped at the sight of her, scared that she was dead.

"Come on, she's still alive, we can help her." Morrowseer confirmed.

They picked her up, and did what they could to revive her.

…

She woke up he next day.

Her eyes were gaunt and beady, and she looked like she had forgotten what she was doing. She was connected to the makeshift IV drip that was stabilizing her condition. It was just lucky that Chameleon happened to be a doctor from the rainforest, where the most catastrophes happened.

…

She said something to them

She said, "Chameleon? Orca? Morrowseer?" in a horse voice that sounded painful. It looked like that was all the strength she had at the moment, as she passed out directly afterwards.

…

She looked better.

She was sitting up, and definitely looked more alert, and her breathing was becoming more even.

…

She was able to eat again.

She was disconnected from the IV drip, and was able to drink the soup and eat the bread they gave her.

…

She said something...more.

It was afternoon, and she was looking much better, but she said something that he would never forget.

"I'm going to find Winter and Moonwatcher, and all their friends. I'm going to murder them."

 **Stay tuned for season two of Jade Academy, The Broken Queen Rises**


	11. Good Things

**Hey! So the second arc begins! Just so you know, you're all amazing, in about six days, I already had all the votes for the next season. And as of now, I've had two THOUSAND views. That's a lot of people! In this chapter I introduce one temporary character (possibly permanent) and one definite character. Frostbite, WinterWatcher-Forever's (winner of the last challenge) character, and AshEmber, my personal OC. Thanks for all the support, and please enjoy The Broken Queen Rises!**

 **Point of view is...Qibli! Request of Dragondrawing333**

 **...**

 **Why I must say this, I don't know**

 **All I can say is that It goes to show**

 **I can prove that I'm not a liar**

 **By saying I don't own Wings of Fire**

 **A poem of annoyance, by AshEmber**

 **...**

 **Enjoy!**

"Hey, Qibli?" Winter asked.

"Hmm."

"Do you miss living in the desert?"

"We've been at school for three months now, I couldn't care less about the desert, even though this place feels like one."

"But is there anything you wish you could have taken with you?"

"No, my family is pretty horrid."

"That makes two of us, buddy."

"Do you miss the tundra?"

"Not at all."

"What about your friends?"

"Well, I do miss Saiba and Frostbite…"

"It's a good thing you had friends before here, Winter."

"You didn't?"

"My family didn't let me."

"Oh."

"It's alright, I don't mind talking about them."

"Alright, but I'm gonna shut up anyways."

"Alright."

It was October, and a nice time of the year, everything was a beautiful color...for them. Winter was still color blind, and was obviously sad about it, although he kept his spirits up. Qibli just wished he could help in any way.

Everyone was doing great in school, Moon and him had straight A's. He had joined the robotics club, as Moon had, and found that he was actually really good at it! And it was fun, too! Everyone was completely content, except for Winter. He needed someone to cheer him up…

It was late at night, and Qibli had grabbed Winter's phone, they'd trusted each other enough to exchange passcodes. He was searching through his contacts, and found who he was looking for, Frostbite.

After looking through texts, he found that Saiba was currently unavailable, and not very rich, so he couldn't fly in. He'd also found that Frostbite had wanted to join the academy, so he copied the phone number, and sent him a text reading.

" _Hey, this is one of Winter's best friends, Qibli, don't know if you've heard about me or not, but ask anything, I can confirm that we're friends. I don't know if he's told you, but he was poisoned, and survived, but lost the ability to see all colors. He's been feeling really down, and I heard you wanted to come here. Want to help out a bit?"_

He hit send, and tried to go to sleep, making sure to close out of the apps on Winter's phone, wanted his possible surprise to stay secret.

…

"So!" Tsunami said, jolting Qibli from dozing off, "Anyone have any good things? I have a special one that I'll save for the end."

Qibli took a sip of the highly caffeinated soda again to try to keep him awake. Not many knew, but he was an insomniac, and it was a tough time for him in the day. Mornings and evenings were fine, but he almost fell asleep in school, a lot.

Good things was basically a time in home room where people in the class would talk about good things that had happened to them recently. It was Tsunami's idea.

"Well, me and Qibli are almost finished with our pet project. We finally fixed that glitch." Moon commented.

"Wonderful to hear, keep going," Tsunami said, excited to see the finished program, "anyone else?"

"I've planned a surprise which I hope will be executed, don't worry though, it's a good one." Qibli said slyly, having received a yes from Frostbite.

"Ooh!" Tsunami said, curious but not wanting to seem rude, "Good luck, Qibli."

"I beat Turtle in a swimming race!" Umber exclaimed, and Turtle beaming.

"Wow, nice job!" Tsunami encouraged. No one else continued, so Tsunami said,

"My turn, the others and I were talking and we decided, a new student can be added to each class, and he should be here any second."

As if on cue, a kid that looked _way_ too young to be a high-schooler walked in, obviously nervous. He was wearing an indigo hoodie and black sweat pants. With sneakers that were a shade of gray, jet black eyes, pale skin, and black-blue hair.

"Ash!" Moon yelled, jumping out of her seat to hug him. "You did it! You actually did it!"

"Uh…" Winter said, "Did what?"

"He worked hard enough, and passed the test to skip a grade! I'm so proud of you!" Moon exclaimed, obviously happy.

"Uh...yeah! I did! Thanks!" Ash said, looking more confident that he recognized at least some of them...or maybe by the look on his face, all of them, "So, from what you've told me, that's Kinkajou," Kinkajou waved, excited to have a new friend, "that's Carnelian," Carnelian gave a nod, and a grin, "that's Winter," Winter smiled, "that's Umber and that's Turtle," they both gave thumbs ups, "and that's Qibli!" Qibli waved and smiled, ready to see everything unfold, he was honestly expecting it to be Frostbtie, maybe he'd get here later.

"So...I'm AshEmber, but please just call me Ash, I don't know why, but where I live, people give us the weirdest names.

He sat down and for the rest of class, the attention was mostly on the would be eighth grader with them. Qibli came to the conclusion everyone would get past it, almost like he could read the minds of his friends. Like Moon...wait...could Ash do that too?

He put that to the back of his mind of questions to ask Moon, and they continued for the rest of the day with no sign of Frostbite.

That was until the end of the day when Qibli got a text saying, " _Where do I go to find you?"_

That was his cue.

He texted back to go to the cafeteria and find somewhere to sit and he'd meet him.

"Hey Winter, you hungry?" Qibli asked.

"Nah, but I could go for a drink, want me to come with?" Winter replied.

"Sure." Qibli said, almost unable to keep a calm face.

"Um…" a voice said from behind them, "Can I please come, too?" It was Ash, "It's okay if you say no...but I just wanted to check."

"Hold on, Winter, wait for me at the doors." Qibli said, desperate to keep his plan from shattering.

"Alright." he said, walking off.

"What's going on?" Ash asked, confused.

"It's a surprise for Winter, I get that you'd like to be friends, but I want this to be special." Qibli explained.

"Okay." Ash said, his eyes glinting.

Qibli ran off, and was able to catch up to Winter as he was walking inside. When they walked in, Winter stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the one who was presumably Frostbite looking back.

"F-Frostbite? Is that you? It's hard to tell." Winter asked, amazed.

"Yeah, it's me, what's up?" he said weakly.

There was no need for words, Qibli just left and let them have a talk about life, not wanting to interrupt.

…

"Thanks so much, Qibli, that meant a lot to me." Winter said, dumbfounded.

"So you don't mind that I broke into your phone?" Qibli asked quickly.

"Wait what?"

"Nothing." Qibli said with a grin.

Qibli walked toward the parking lot, hoping to catch Frostbite on his way out. He managed to, and started a conversation.

"So you're Qibli, right?" Frostbite asked.

"Yep, that's me, thanks so much for coming, how'd you get here so fast?"

"I got in my car late last night, got permission, and drove here, it's not _that_ long, maybe five or six hours?"

"Wow, thanks again."

"So...this is a nice school, do they have room for one more?"

"I'm not entirely sure, they might not be accepting new students for a while, but I can check."

"And also, how'd you get my phone number?"

"I checked Winter's contacts…"

"Oh, alright."

"A question for you, are you comfortable talking about your conversation in the cafeteria?"

"Yeah…"

"Mind if I ask about it?"

"Not at all…" Frostbite concluded, and began his story,

"So he walked over to me, and we chatted for a bit about what had happened since he went to school. I heard in more detail about that crazed queen story, and more detail about that sub-tonic, which sounds awful. I talked to him for a bit about what was going on in the tundra, how we were holding up, and then somewhere one of us brought up the side effects of sub-tonic, when Winter's face fell… "He talked a bit more about what it was like to be color blind, but also how he was getting used to it. I mentioned one of my old friends who was partly color blind, and he always said it wasn't that big of a deal. You can live a full life without color, it's just less pretty. Winter seemed okay after that, and we talked a bit about relationships, as you do. "It seems like Moonwatcher is helping Winter through all of his troubles, and that's fine by me. I enjoyed being able to talk his sister, who I had a crush on, Icicle. He didn't seem uncomfortable at all, just happy. I eventually finished it by saying that I hope I get to stay here, cause it would be awesome."

"Well, good on you Frostbite. If you want to go home or camp in your car for a few days, I can check whether you stay or not." Qibli said, moved by the story he'd heard.

"I'll go home, just keep me updated, okay?"

"Got it, Frostbite."

"Thanks."

Frostbite got in his snow adapted sports car, and like that, he was off. Qibli went back to the dormitories, as it was getting dark, and decided to see if he could sleep any better tonight. Just in case, he bought a soda for if he under slept.

Getting back to the dorm, Qibli saw it was nine, and plopped on his bed, charging his stuff as well.

"Hey Winter?" Qibli asked.

"Yeah?" Winter said from his own bed.

"Good night, buddy."

"Night."

Everything was well, everything was at peace. Everyone was content, there were no major or minor threats. The worst thing that could happen was Scarlet returning, but that wasn't possible…

Right?

 **Oh yeah! Season two! Let's get this train rolling! So what did ya think? Did you like the (possible) two new characters? And a vote which I'll put up on my profile (which I'm updating in case it looks unfinished), should Frostbite be able to go the Jade Academy or not? Just so you know, this isn't a major plot point, sorry WWF, but just thought I'd ask. Also, who else got nostalgic when reading about good things? Leave a request and I'll be right on it! AshEmber OUT!**


	12. Headaches and Coffee Shops

**Hey there peoples! How are you all? I hope you're having an** _ **excellent**_ **day! If there's something that's bothering you, though, I'm extremely sorry. I hope that thing goes away, and if it can't then we're all here for you. Well, it seems that Frostbite is going to be staying for at least the rest of this season, and that's awesome! If there are any requests for future chapters or stories, let me know! Enjoy this chapter, and guess what, there's another challenge! Woo hoo!**

 **I gave you a poem, isn't that enough to show you I don't own the series?**

 **Point of view this chapter is...AshEmber! Requested by me! :P**

Oh calamari jalapeño cheddar, this was bad. The school was filled with so many people...and they were _loud._ He head hurt, and not from the math. The bell rang, finally, and he shot out of the school, before he could be caught in a crowd.

Ugh, school was supposed to be fun, and new, not painful.

Ash just slumped onto the bed in his dorm, the only dorm that had only one occupant, but two beds.

Ash grabbed his phone and dialed his old friend, Moon, he just wanted to talk.

"Ash? Why'd you bolt out of class so fast?" Moon asked.

"Is that Ash?" He heard someone, presumably Qibli, ask in the background.

"Sorry, I just...need to talk to you...preferably with no one else around."

There was no response, she seemed hesitant, and then said,

"Sure, meet me tonight in the library."

"Alright, thanks, but off of that note, where are you?"

"We just got out of the building, and we're heading over to this coffee shop we like, wanna come with us? There's room."

"Uhh...sure."

Ash ran out of his dorm, making sure to grab his new wallet, and went to the school entrance. It was raining out, for about the first time in weeks. It made the ground pretty slick, but Ash didn't trip until he saw his friends. They were waiting at the parking lot, as promised. He called out, and then felt his feet fall out from under him, landing on his back, luckily softened by his hoodie. The world still spun for a bit as he hit his head, though.

" _Oh my gosh."_

" _Is he okay?"_

" _Tough fall."_

" _He's still moving…"_

"Ugh…" Ash groaned as his friends rushed over, leaning over him, "Ta da, I tried to stick the landing."

Qibli and Winter both looked at each other, grinning,

"Well, good to see you've got a thick skull." Winter joked, pulling Ash up off the ground.

"I don't think I could crack yours with a mallet." Ash retorted.

Putting that behind them, Ash hopped into Qibli's car, which for some reason had a large dent in the back...he'd have to ask about that.

The coffee shop was really nice, he asked for a fountain drink, with everyone else getting something from the menu. Ash got a combination of all the different sodas at the machine, and took a seat at the large, slightly chipped table, noting that the chair was pretty rickety.

"So, the people who run this place are called Mangrove and Orchid, and they're really nice." Turtle commented, pointing to the two behind the counter.

" _And they barely have the money to run this place."_ he thought.

"Well, I'm sure they'll get more customers." Ash said, then realizing what he'd just done, added, "This place seems kind of empty, and this is a good time for people to be here."

Moon stared at him for a second, but shrugged it off and kept drinking her steamer.

"Alright, important question, who else is hungry? I barely had any lunch." Carnelian asked.

"I could go for something."

"Eh...not really."

"Not hungry, but I'll eat."

"Alright, what do you all want? It's on me." Carnelian said.

Ash asked for a cake pop, making a mental note to offer her something the next time they went here. Moon said she was fine. Umber got a chocolate cookie. Winter got a vanilla one. Qibli a slice of banana bread. Kinkajou got a parfait, Turtle a salmon bagel, and Carnelian got a bacon cheese sandwich.

Ash was trying his best not to read anyone's mind,

He was failing pretty miserably.

" _Well, there goes the rest of my tips, but Ash might think I'm nicer than I think I am."_

" _I wonder if Carnelian did that for any particular reason?"_

" _La la la la la, I love this song."_

Ugh, even in a small group, it was giving him a small headache, or maybe that was the after effects of the entirety of the school.

"Oh...my...god." Qibli said, "This is AWESOME!"

Almost the whole table jumped at his last word, and a few were wondering whether he was talking about the banana bread or something else.

"Winter! You _have_ to look at this!"

Winter grumbled a bit, but looked at what Qibli had on his phone, then his jaw dropped.

"Seriously? He can stay?"

"Yeah! Looks like we have room for one more person! Do you think that he would room with Ash? No, wait, he's only thirteen, would you want him to stay?"

Winter and Qibli both looked at Ash, grinning.

"Uh...who exactly are we talking about?"

"Oh! Right, you haven't met him yet, he's Winter's old friend, named Frostbite. I just got word from Tsunami that we can have another student in our group. He's fifteen, though, sixteen in a month. Would you be okay sharing a room with him?"

"Uh...oh what the heck, if he says yes, then I'm in."

"Nice! I'll give him a call, thank you _so_ much Qibli, you have no idea how much this means to me."

Winter walked out so that he could talk without interrupting them.

"So, anyone think he'll finish his cookie?" Umber asked.

"Umber, you haven't even started yours." Carnelian pointed out.

"But, who's Frostbite? I haven't met him." Kinkajou said.

"Oh, so, the other day, during good things, remember when I said I had a surprise?"

"Yeah."

"That was the surprise, I invited his friend over to cheer him up, because he was feeling down about...you know."

Everyone glanced at Moon, knowing that she and Winter were in a relationship.

"No! I meant down about being color blind."

"Oh…"

" _Oops, I look dumb now."_

"Well, I guess he'll be our classmate, but don't worry, he's really nice." Qibli finished.

They drove home, Winter said that Frostbite should arrive in a few hours, about twenty minutes before he scheduled his talk with Moon. He could introduce himself and then he had to talk, he didn't know if Moon could read minds, but he knew that she was the only one he could trust to reveal this secret to.

Wow, this laptop was really fast, even faster than his computer at home,that wasn't really saying much, though. His computer ran at .33 frames per second. Stupid Gateway 2005 edition.

On it was a picture of his favorite animal from a video game, a black fox like creature with blue rings all over it. He liked that someone had suggested that...probably Moon.

 _Knock, knock, knock_

"Uh...hello? Is anyone home?" Ash heard a voice through the door.

"Yeah, I'm AshEmber, I'll get the door."

Ash went to get the door. He opened it to see who he thought was Frostbite.

" _Oh wow, he looks a lot younger than I thought…"_

Frostbite looked at him a little uncertainty, then asked.

"How old are you? Are you advanced? You look a lot younger than I thought you would."

"Well...I'm thirteen-"

"Wait, what? They put me in a room with a kid?"

"No! Wait, I'm supposed to be in freshman year right now, but I skipped a year and my birthday's in November, so I'm not _that_ young."

"Oh…so you are advanced, I can get past that."

Frostbite walked over to his bed, and opened his drawer to find his school supplies.

"So, why didn't you come here earlier?"

"Eh, the other school at home was closer, and I wasn't sure I was ready for boarding school yet, but now I am."

"Oh...alright, I heard my friend Moon saying that this school was awesome, and when I said I was advanced, she recommended this one. So that we could be in the same class."

"Wait, Moon as in Moonwatcher? Winter's girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"Funny that the people who recommended the school to us are in a relationship."

"I never thought of it that way…"

"Well," Frostbite said, stretching, "I had a long car ride, I'm gonna go to bed, night."

And with that he was out cold.

Wait, what time was it?

Oh great, hopefully Moon wasn't waiting for him for too long.

He dashed outside and to the library, finding Moon just walking in.

"Oh, hey Ash."

"Hey, so, I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

" _I hope this isn't too bad."_

"Have you ever noticed that I tend to uh...know what everyone's talking about completely?"

"Yeah, have you noticed that about me?"

"Uh…"

He'd been paying more attention to her thoughts.

"Well, maybe we both should reveal our secrets." Moon said.

"Okay...I'll go first." Ash sighed reluctantly. Knowing this could be the end of all his friendships was hard.

"Moon, I can read minds…"

She looked at him for a second, then laughed.

" _How funny, I can too."_

 **Wow, okay, I have been putting this off...forever. I'm not dead yet, just busy with my own school. Well, challenge time! By the way, I should mention that if you've had your character in a chapter already, then you can still win the challenge, but not include your character, that way it's fair. Anyway, the challenge is to guess the character that Ash had on his laptop, it's from Pokemon by the way, happy searching!**


	13. The Stratosphere Jump!

**Hey there again! I feel like I say that a lot…**

 **Well, I'm not dead just yet! It takes more than thirteen tests to keep me down! So, how did I finally get time? I didn't have any homework. First of all, some words…**

 **I cannot believe the support you all have given this story. Even with all the mistakes here and there, I scrolled through the reviews. As of the time I post this, there is not a single bad review. That is amazing. Thank you all...so much. You've given me confidence to continue this story, and maybe, just maybe, I'll publish one of my own someday. If that day is soon, I will definitely let everyone know.**

 **Winner of the last challenge was dragonwritergirl112! Great job with shiny Umbreon! Don't get on my case about Saiba answering first though, one win (and shout out/special appearance) per person.**

 **Point of view for this story is...Umber! Cause I've been neglecting to do his chapter for way too long!**

 **I give up! Why do you still think I own this series? Or that I'm going to say I do? I have screamed, shouted, and sang that I don't, what else do you want?**

"Ha!" Umber shouted, as he touched the edge of the pool, "I beat you again Turtle!"

Turtle came up behind him, just a second short.

"Good job Umber, I'm proud of you."

"Heh, thanks."

"So, if the time comes where we're stranded in the middle of a lake, now you know how to swim."

"Yeah, thanks for that, I appreciate it."

"No prob."

"So, it's a Saturday, and the sun's just risen, you know, being winter and all, what do you wanna do today?"

"Hmm," Turtle thought to himself, "What about we go find everyone else first?"

"Sure."

Umber and Turtle got up out of the pool, sopping wet from the swim. They both changed and dashed outside to see that Ash and Moon were walking side by side. Umber knew that they were like cousins, how they'd known each other for a long time, but for some reason, he felt like Ash had slight feelings for Moon. Meh, it was nothing.

Wait, it seemed like they were laughing, but he was sure they hadn't moved their mouths, did they see something? Umber dashed up to see, but it was just a tree. What?

Those two looked like they were having a full on conversation, with hand gestures here and there, but there weren't moving their mouths. Were they ventriloquists?

Wait, Moon said about a month ago that she could read minds...could Ash do that too? Or was it just a one way conversation?

He had to find out.

"Hey Moon! Ash! What's up?" he called to them.

They seemed startled for a moment, then they turned around, "Oh! Hey Umber, where are you going?" Moon called back.

Umber ran up to them, and said that he was just looking for them while thinking furiously, _"Hey Ash, how are you?"_

Ash seemed shocked for a moment. Then he said, "I'm, feeling okay, got something off my chest. Feeling less paranoid."

"That's good, sorry, it just looked weird when you were talking without speaking. That's insane by the way, what's it like to have an internal conversation?"

Moon and Ash shrugged, "Just like talking, but more like texting how no one else can hear you." Moon said,

"It's kind of weird, but Frostbite said that Winter, Qibli, and him were hanging out for the day." Ash said.

"Kinkajou said that she wanted an extra half hour of sleep, and Carnelian's doing homework for a bit."

"Well, we're up to date," Umber said, "Wanna go somewhere?"

Umber was trying desperately to hide how uncomfortable he was, with there being two people reading his mind.

"Sure," Ash said, "Why not."

Umber could tell that he and Moon had been 'talking,' why couldn't he be okay with this? He knew the answer plain and clear, though. He probably had the worst thoughts about anyone. Everyone must have been so much nicer.

"I'll drive." Turtle said.

They walked to his car, and eventually were headed off somewhere.

"So where are we going, Turtle?" Moon asked,

Turtle was silent for a bit, then Moon added the game changer.

"Uh…I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but neither of us can read your mind, Turtle."

"Wait? What?" Turtle said, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I don't know why…"

Come on! What did Turtle do to make himself unreadable? Apparently he didn't know, because he was at a loss for words. Turtle started fidgeting with his armband, and eventually, he took it off to keep his attention on the road.

"What the…" Ash muttered, then Moon shouted,

"The armband! Turtle, what's that made of?"

"Oh, just some rocks fallen off an asteroid, why?"

"Well, thanks for taking us to the stratosphere (building in Vegas), that's really nice." Ash said, triggering Turtle,

"Wait, you _can_ read my mind? You lied?" Turtle asked, shocked.

"No!" Moon cried, "That armband, it's like a shield or something!"

"Hold on," Umber said, grabbing Turtle's armband, and ripping out a stone, then putting it back, "Can you read me?"

"Nope." Moon and Ash said in unison.

"Well, maybe we should give one of these to everyone in our class, that way our close friends will still have their privacy?" Turtle said, putting the armband back on.

"That works, honestly, if everyone was given one, I wouldn't care, it's more of a nuisance than anything, it's always giving me a headache." Ash said, rubbing his head.

"Oh!" Moon exclaimed, "Ash, I have a trick for that…"

Moon started talking about raindrops, but Umber wasn't listening. There was a shield. He didn't have to let them know about his dead sister. He still dwelled on it a lot, but no one else needed to know how she died.

A while ago, maybe three years, his sister was still alive. She was great...strong, smart, and charismatic. Then she was murdered.

Not in her sleep, sadly, but luckily, it wasn't painful and drawn out. Someone broke into their middle school, and started to rampage. He didn't know who it was, as they were wearing all black, but they seemed mentally unstable.

The person broke into the classroom that he and Crane were in, and went to where he and Crane were hiding.

It was awful and terrifying. The intruder took Crane, held her by the neck, and slit it with a knife. She was motionless.

Umber, filled with adrenaline and anger, leaped up on the now killer, and pinned them to the ground.

They were too strong, they threw him off, and ran away...never to be seen again.

He was tearing up at the mere memory of it.

"Well, what do you wanna do when we're there?" Turtle asked, snapping Umber out of his thoughts.

"Isn't there that thing where you can jump off the top of the building?" Moon asked, "That would be interesting." Ash remarked.

"Yeah, sure, we could do that." Umber said.

"How much money do we have then?" Turtle asked, "It's about a hundred dollars per person."

"Um...people say I'm too young to get a job…" Ash mumbled.

"I have eighty from various things." said Moon.

"I have nothing,"Umber said, realizing something, "I forgot my wallet in our dorm."

"Yikes." Turtle said, "It's a good thing I've got about four hundred on me."

"Wait, seriously? You're paying for us?" Moon asked, mouth agape.

"Um...you don't have to do that." Ash said, getting quieter and quieter.

"Turtle, the main question...how the _heck_ do you have that much?" Umber interrogated.

"How do I say mayor Coral is my mother lightly?" Turtle asked.

"Oh, well that makes sense." Moon said.

"Well, you still don't have to pay for me…" Ash said.

"Come on," Turtle insisted, "I've got enough."

"Well," Ash said, "I don't think I'm old enough yet."

"I believe the age limit's fourteen." Umber said, then grabbed his phone to double check.

They were just pulling into a parking lot when Umber concluded that the age limit was indeed fourteen.

"Crud," Ash said,

"What?" Turtle asked.

"I'm fourteen in November."

"And that's next week..." Moon said.

"Well, I know that we didn't drive you out here so you could watch, Ash." Umber said, getting mischievous, "You look fifteen at least, come on with us."

"Really?" Ash exclaimed, "Okay, I'll do it, thanks."

They all signed up for the jump, with no one questioning the underage jumper.

First up was Turtle, followed closely by Moon. Umber and Ash would take the next elevator up. They waited at the bottom to see how they did. Turtle had also ordered the video recording for each of them so that they could laugh at all of their reactions, just in case they screamed at the top but not at the bottom.

"Hey! There he is!" Umber shouted. Spotting the movement from above that he recognized as his friend.

There was a bit of waiting, and then Turtle jumped. He fell down pretty fast, and Umber could have sworn that he did a front flip during the slowed descent.

Eventually, after that, he reached the bottom.

"Woo! That was awesome!" Turtle shouted at the top of his lungs.

Moon came down a few minutes later, shaking.

"That was so scary, no one ever make me do that again." she said when she hit the bottom, sounding shell shocked.

The elevator came back down, and Umber and Ash headed up.

"You ready?" Umber asked.

"Nope." Ash said as the doors opened, "Let's go."

Umber was strapped into the machine that would let him down, and looked at the gorgeous and terrifying scene before him.

There he was, on a two meter by two meter platform, looking out at the city. He was dizzyingly high up, and knew that the first step would be the hardest.

"Ready?" the instructor asked, then without waiting, yelled, "Three two one GO!"

Scared out of his mind by the sudden outburst, Umber leaped off.

"AHH!" Umber shouted for the first second, which then quickly turned into, "OH YEAH! THIS IS AWESOME!"

He gazed around the quickly growing city, and tried to outdo Turtle's possible trick by doing a backflip in the descent.

He hit the ground harder than he thought he would, but light enough to not hurt.

He was then quickly greeted by Moon and Turtle, who had already changed out of their suits.

"That...was...AMAZING!" Umber shouted, nearly knocking Turtle off his feet.

"Worth it?" Turtle asked.

"Definitely." Umber concluded.

They went to the waiting area to watch Ash, and as he hit the ground, he collapsed.

"I'm still alive." Ash said from the ground, slightly muffled while waving his arm.

Afterwards, when everyone was back in their normal clothes, they received their videos, and links.

They got back to the car, and Umber loaded up Turtle's first.

He didn't do a flip like he thought he would, but he definitely tried.

Moon had a normal descent, but screamed the whole way down.

Umber nearly bursted their eardrums with his screaming.

Ash surprised all of them, shouting that he was thirteen as he was jumping, although it looked like the instructor didn't hear him.

They laughed and talked on the trip back.

The sky was darkening, and Umber was dozing off. Almost asleep, he noticed something...eerie outside the window.

On the top of a mountain, he thought he could see a figure, a dark red one.

It was moving, and looked like it was standing up.

Umber was too petrified to move, or talk, he just watched as the figure took out a flashlight and illuminated their face.

He was greeted to a face that had a nasty scar on one side, and looked all too familiar on the other.

He saw the maniacal grin, and the knife in her hand, though she didn't move.

They turned a bend, and she was gone.

He didn't know how to say it, but he had a burning fear in his chest.

He was almost certain that he had been looking into the face of their friends' nightmares.

That was Scarlet…

 **Okay, once in a while I need to end a chapter without a cliffhanger. So, Scarlet's back! Eek! What's gonna happen? Also, a side question, has anyone reading this story ever done the Stratosphere jump? I'm probably gonna do it when I turn fourteen, which will be AWESOME! Rate, review, and leave suggestions! See ya next chapter!**


	14. A New Plan

***GASP* I'm back! Why was I gone for so long? I may or may not have gotten trapped doing HOMEWORK! Five advanced classes with a lot of homework take a lot out of you...meh, I had some time. Guess what? It's my birthday! I'm fourteen now! Yay!**

 **Thanks for all the support altogether on this series! It's amazing! Again, I know I say this a lot, but it does honestly feel like you all love this way of writing, even with all its flops here and there. I dunno, I guess, it's just...really amazing, thanks...all of you.**

 **Point of view for this chapter is Kinkajou.**

 **I don't own it! I seriously don't have any right to this series!**

"WHAT?" Kinkajou shrieked, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SAW SCARLET?"

Kinkajou was pacing around her dormitory, alone, on the phone with Umber.

"I don't know...I saw her outside the window yesterday. I was falling asleep, though, I can be sure of what I saw…" Umber said with uncertainty.

"Umber, why didn't you tell anyone else?"

"I did. At different times. I let Turtle, Ash, and Moon know immediately, as they were in the car with me. You're the first person I've called, and I'm going to let everyone else know as well."

"Okay then, good, and good idea, we might have panicked if we all knew at once. I need to thin, bye Umber."

Kinkajou hung up, then collapsed on her bed, wanting to vomit. Why did this happen? Why was Scarlet back?

Would they all be safe?

This was bad, really bad, she needed to go somewhere and think. So, she went to her spot.

Her spot wasn't anywhere normal, or even in that zone. Her spot was on the inaccessible roof of their dormitory building.

She climbed up there out of her window and sat on the edge. She wasn't new to this, she was always on high, hard to reach areas, places that no sane person would go.

She just sat up there, thinking.

" _Why did this happen?"_

She had to think, how in the world could Scarlet have survived that cave in? What about the others? Chameleon, Morrowseer, and Orca would probably be huge problems, unless they figured out something to stop them.

Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, no doubt this would be even harder than last time, maybe they could win without any lasting effects.

Kinkajou whipped out her phone, getting an idea. She set up a group chat with all of her friends, Ash and Frostbite included, and sent this text.

" **I don't know if you all know yet, but Scarlet's back. We can't wait for her to strike, this time, let's bring the fight to her."**

She felt satisfied, and climbed back into her dorm, Moon and Carnelian still weren't back yet. She didn't blame them, it was the weekend and they had just finished a bunch of tests, so she went to sleep.

It didn't come that easy, it was filled with nightmares.

She woke up the next morning, and Moon and Carnelian were there, sleeping. She checked her phone, but it was dead, so much for that. She put her phone on charge and headed out to the cafeteria, she needed to take her mind off of this. Stress was _not_ something she was fond of.

She found Ash there eating a cookie, and Qibli sitting next to him, on his computer.

"Hey guys! What's up?" Kinkajou called.

Qibli looked up with a serious look on his face. Ash just stayed there, looking sort of crestfallen.

"We both got you text…" Qibli said when she got there, "Are you sure? How would we even find her?"

It was good to see that he wasn't disagreeing at least.

"Um, so, Scarlet, how bad is she?" Ash asked, scared for the answer.

"She's the one who tortured and almost killed Winter and Moon. She almost killed all of us for that matter." Kinkajou replied, shuddering.

"On a side note, it's Ash's birthday." Qibli said matter of factly.

"Wait, seriously? Oh geez, I'm sorry this had to happen today, Ash."

"It's okay, ignore it, we can talk when this is done. What do we do about her?"

"We find out where she is, then attack, metaphorically, I mean, we call the cops."

"Okay." Ash and Qibli said in unison.

"I can hack into phones to find out where she is, do you know her phone number?" Ash asked.

"No? What kind of question is tha-" Kinkajou paused getting an idea.

"Umm...sorry?" Ash said confusedly.

"Chameleon…" Kinkajou said, still wondering why she didn't think of this.

"Chameleon?" Qibli asked.

"Yeah, that guy, I know him, and I STILL KNOW HIS PHONE NUMBER, he also never changes it, I called him a couple days before the whole Scarlet incident, and he was still there." Kinkajou exclaimed.

"Got it." said Ash, he got out his computer and got to work after Kinkajou gave it to him.

"You found it?" Qibli asked after his computer made a beeping sound.

"Yeah." Ash said, "but we should wait for everyone else first, us three can't do this alone, and we need to be sure that everyone knows about this."

"Good idea." Kinkajou said.

"Well, I'm heading back to bed, I'm tired." Qibli said, grabbing his stuff.

"Yeah, me too." Ash said.

"Sounds great." Kinkajou replied, feeling sluggish from the lack of sleep.

She went back to her dorm, seeing the others still sleeping. She didn't wake them up, they were probably tired as well. Collapsing onto her bed, she went to sleep, knowing that soon, something big was going down.

 **Hey! Sorry for the extremely short chapter, I'll make another one as soon as I can. I've been pummeled with schoolwork, and have had these group projects where surprise! My partners don't do anything. This was an interlude chapter, and next chapter is gonna be in the perspective of Frostbite, and I don't think that ANY of you know what's coming. See you soon.**


	15. A Plan to Replace the Other One

**Well here we are again, it's always such a pleasure.**

 **Hey there! So there's another challenge, keep an eye out! Now to add the chapter that will change everything! It might be confusing, but please bear with me. And now, onto to newt chapter of the Wings of Fire Human AU!**

 **Point of view for this chapter is...Frostbite!**

 **I don't own Wings of Fire.**

"Hello?" Frostbite asked, hoping there wouldn't be an answer.

This was a terrible idea! Why did he go through with this?

Ash was going to hate him, there was no doubt about it, but he was way too young for this! He was only fourteen!

"Hello there…" a raspy, vengeful voice said through the receiver.

Frostbite gulped, Scarlet.

"Yes, I have...an...offer for you." Frostbite gulped.

"If you're one of the Jade Academy brats then no...I'm going to kill you."

"I'm not one of them," Frostbite lied, "I just want to offer something that has to do with them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm offering the one you originally wanted, I know the story, don't ask how, or the deal's off."

"What are you asking in return? I don't like giving things to other people."

"I'm asking that you leave the others alone."

"Is that it?"

"Yes…"

"Deal. Where will we make the exchange?"

"Where you were originally stopped, the water reserve, or what remains of it."

"Alright then, I'll see you there, when?"

"Two days from now at midnight." Frostbite said, he'd rehearsed the time with Moon a couple times before, they had the perfect plan setup, deceive her, then stop her.

"See you then…"

Frostbite threw the phone on the bed, not wanting to hear that voice any longer. He didn't touch it until Scarlet had hung up, after what felt like a painfully long time.

"Hey Frostbite, what's up?" Ash asked, walking in to the odd sight of Frostbite looking at his phone as though it could blow up.

"Ah! Oh! Hey, uhh...playing games on my phone."

"Sure…"

"There was a jumpscare."

"Alright then," Ash said, obviously knowing that this was a lie.

 _It was a lie…why can't I tell him the truth?_

"I know why...Frostbite...WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING!?" Ash shouted, making Frostbite jump about a foot in the air.

"Uhh...what do you mean?" Frostbite asked, knowing that this was pointless.

"Don't play dumb with me, you forgot the one thing that would make your 'perfect plan' actually work, with me not interfering!" Ash held up a small, black stone. he placed it on Frostbite's nightstand.

Oh geez, the mind block stone, he forgot about that one crucial detail.

"Also…A DEAL WITH HER? YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO JUST TRADE ONE OF OUR FRIENDS FOR A LIAR'S PROMISE FOR SAFETY?"

No! He didn't know what the plan was...

"Ash! That's not true, we're going to trick her."

"Sure you are...Frostbite, you're disgusting, and I'm stopping you."

"No! This was going to work...don't screw it up!"

"I'M GOING TO SCREW IT UP?" Ash exploded again.

"Alright, I know you probably hate me as of now, and what you're seeing isn't actually true, it's out of context…"

"I'll give you one chance to explain-"

"Thanks…"

"-Without the mind stone."

"Alright then."

"Start talking."

"We wanted to stop Scarlet before she had the chance to rise again. Moon said that you were protective, so we decided that we'd use her as bait, and keep you out of it…"

"Frostbite, I believe you...but HECK YES I'M PROTECTIVE! WHEN I CAME TO THIS SCHOOL-"

Frostbite cowered for a second after his sudden stop, afraid he would explode again, "When you came to this school what?"

"I promised her mother that I would do anything to protect her…"

"What?"

"When Secretkeeper, Moon's mom, found out about Moon being kidnapped and her dad being one of the kidnappers, Morrowseer, she was close to pulling her out of school, and only let her stay for a while to see Winter heal. When I went, she thought that two mind readers would put Moon in even more danger, and myself...I vowed to protect her…"

"Oh...wow…"

"So I'll be the mind reader that Scarlet wants, use me as bait instead...I'm worried for both Moon and Secretkeeper's safety for this one. More from herself than anything, I don't want either of them to do anything stupid…"

"Uh…"

This was going to ruin everything, but Ash had a point...and that was brave, promising that kind of thing.

"Alright."

"Call her, let me tell her the news."

"Which her? At this point I'm confused, there could be three people."

"Scarlet."

"Okay." he dialed and put it on speaker.

"What now?!" Scarlet yelled.

"Hi! This is Scarlet, right?" Frostbite asked.

"Soon to be Queen Scarlet…" she replied bitterly

"Well, new deal for you, the other mind reader was no help, right, I mean, they nearly killed you."

"I don't need to be reminded of those two idiots!"

"Well, I know a mind reader that could be more willing to help, so I'll send him instead, you leave everyone else alone, got it?"

"Fine, _I'll_ leave them alone."

"Alright, same time, same place."

"How do I know that you're not just going to try and stop me?"

"You don't, but here the mind reader is…"

"Hey!" Ash said, "I'm the mind reader! Toodles!"

Frostbite glared at him, but then he heard Scarlet say something that sent chills up his spine.

"Just know, if you're tricking me, I have many, many ways that I could kill you."

"Fine then."

She hung up, and Frostbite threw his phone against the wall, cracking the screen in the process.

"Crud! Aw dang it." Frostbite raged, both scared and mad at himself for being dumb.

"How about calamari jalapeño cheddar?" Ash suggested.

"I'm sorry what?"

"My parents are really strict about swearing, so I made up my own."

"Oh…"

"They think it's funny."

"Well then calamari jalapeño cheddar."

Ash then broke down laughing, unable to control himself.

"Uh…"

"What's wrong with us?" Ash asked, "Here we are, setting a path for near certain death, and we're making jokes about squids?"

"Heh, yeah, we are weird, maybe if we head to bed, we'll be back to normal, it is really late after all."

"Ditto to that, I'm crashing, night! I'll need sleep for this crazy plan to work."

Frostbite watched as Ash fell asleep almost instantly, and he crashed onto his bed, not bothering to change.

This was going to be awful, and explaining to the others was going to be weird. This was going to be the scariest thing that he would ever do, and especially with someone so young being the bait.

Well, at least one thing was for certain, he did need rest if this was happening.

 **Wow, I need to write these longer chapters, but I promised a friend it would be out today...and I have a ton of schoolwork, so sorry about that. Anyway, the challenge is to guess what song the first line of the intro was...sorry for the short chapter, I'm out before you all kill me…bye!**


	16. Playing the Hero

**Well...now...it's time. Stuff is about to get REAL here, like it hasn't already. I've planned this out for the next few chapters, and I'm hoping it's all gonna wrap up perfectly in the end. And...I've got some news...I'm ending this after chapter twenty. That's the finale, chapter twenty one is gonna be like a curtain call of sorts. Anyway, in advance, thanks for all the support and I'm so glad that you've given all of it, submitting answers for challenges, complementing the series, seriously, I know that it's small, but I love it.**

 **Among other news, Cuberman3141 won the last challenge, and his character will appear soon, good job with Portal 2's end song, "Want You Gone." His character's name is Dazzle, and he'll be somewhere in the next few chapters, I'll let you know. Now, I'm done rambling, let's get on with the story!**

 **Point of view for this story is...Kinkajou!**

 **I don't own the series! Please just leave me be!**

"Is everyone ready?" Kinkajou asked.

It was the dead of night, nearly time for the deal to take place. She was in position, camouflaged with tranquilizer dart gun in hand. This was going to be the most risky plan ever conceived, it had to be frame perfect, no mistakes.

She jumped for a second when she heard the car's tires on the sand nearby. Headlights blazing and illuminating the ground. The car screeched to a halt as the doors opened, and out jumped Ash and Frostbite.

"Hey there!" That was their cue.

Kinkajou, along with Umber and Carnelian, moved on ahead, silently and skillfully. They were now behind the four figures that were their targets.

The plan was set in place, trade Ash (she reeled at the thought), Frostbite leaves, they dart Scarlet and the others, Ash gets info as they call the cops, and everyone's safe and happy!

"Hello, I take it that you're Frostbite…" that voice, Scarlet…

"Yes, and this is Ash." Frostbite stopped walking as Ash kept going, face to face with the Queen of evil.

"Why if it isn't our little mind reader." Scarlet sneered, she had everything she wanted.

"May I ask what it is you need me for?" Ash asked, now was the time, they were going to stop this either way, if this worked, it could just be faster.

"Get intel from the enemy, find out their weaknesses, you could be _very_ useful."

Crud, not enough, backup plan time.

"Okay, Frost, you can leave if you like." Ash said, determined.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Frostbite said as he hopped back into the car and drove off enough so that they'd think he was gone.

"So then, no need for introductions, I already know all about you, and I'm sure you know all about me."

Ash was undoubtedly trying to find everything he could in Scarlet's thoughts.

"You're…nervous about this plan, worried it won't work like how it didn't last time, you don't trust me, and you're scared for your safety, no one else's, just your own." Ash read, saying it out loud.

"It doesn't matter if she cares about whether we survive, after all, we live to serve her!" Chameleon shouted maniacally.

That's...not right...what? Kinkajou was confused, what was going on with Chameleon? He cared about others, sure, but also himself. It wasn't like him to just...do that…

Brainwashing, that's her plan. She's telling them that if she's Queen, then she'll give them glory, although Kinkajou seriously doubted that would happen. Turtle's sister, Moon's dad, Kinkajou's friend, it had to be brainwashing.

"Hey, Carnelian, Umber, head to Frostbite, tell him I have a plan, I think I know Scarlet's strategy." Kinkajou whispered to them.

They looked uncertain, but seeing her face, they nodded, and silently crept towards where Frostbite would be.

Dart ready...straight at Scarlet's head, she fired the silent gun.

The dart flew, and time seemed to slow down as the dart...landed on the mark, her neck.

"Ah! What the? No! What is this?" Scarlet shouted as she clawed at the dart, which was slowly injecting venom.

"There's someone here! Someone...Jade Academy, it's one of them, take cover!" Morrowseer shouted as he, Orca, and...no one else tried to hide, being taken down by more darts. All three of them slowly passed out, but where was Chameleon? He was there a second ago, but now he was...gone.

"Hey, I think you forgot about something…" a voice said as a blinding white pain flew through her head. Everything was just a blur, Chameleon had done something, by the feeling she had, he had kicked her in the head.

Everything was going black, but she had to do one thing. She pulled the flare gun out of her pocket and fired it, letting the others know that something had gone wrong. After seeing the flash of light from the flare, everything went dark.

…

…

...

"What do we do? Do we chase after them?" A feminine voice asked. Orca, by the sound of it.

"No, let them go and get their friends, we can bring them all to one place." Scarlet said, a more dry voice than anything she'd yet heard.

No, they'd failed...no...she'd failed. She told her friends to leave...why'd she have to try and play the part of the hero? Brilliant thinking, Kinkajou, best idea you've had yet.

"If we chase after them-" Morrowseer started.

"If we chase after them, their friends don't come, we can use the mind reader and this idiot girl-"

That hit her like an iron fist to the stomach.

"-as leverage to get them all here, and then we can be rid of them. Or...we know that one of them is the child of the mayor Coral. And that this girl is the best friend of mayor Glory. One of them is the nephew to mayor Glacier, and one is the stepson to mayor Thorn. This could be very useful if we do this correctly. Let them all get here, and then, we take over the land. I'll be Queen." Scarlet pondered the thought.

"Wow, good thinking." Chameleon said.

"Well then, I guess it's you we have to thank for all this, "Kinkajou winced as she opened her eyes to see Scarlet looking at her, "if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have the tools we needed, so thank you. Thank you for betraying your friends."

"You'll never get away with this…"

"Yes I will."

"She…" Kinkajou saw Ash being held tight by Morrowseer, and Ash looked broken, "she will...her plan is perfect, no flaws, out friends would come here, and she would capture them…"

Dang it Ash! Very optimistic, aren't you?

They were both taken to a faraway place, it looked like a bunker. They were thrown in a jail cell. No windows, no bars, just a single, low power light bulb was there source of light. Ash started pacing, trying to figure a way out of this mess. Kinkajou curled herself into a ball, she couldn't find anything to be excited about right now.

"You probably hate me right now, don't you?" Kinkajou whispered, hoping that Ash wouldn't hear.

"Of course not, everyone makes mistakes, those mistake make them stronger, and strength is what we need right now."

"Are you sure that Scarlet's plan has no flaws?"

"Yes...so how about we make one?"

 **Tension! Suspense! And Drama! I think...I'll get to work on the next chapter soon. I've got finals coming up shortly, so wish me luck on that! Keep up the support, I'll see you in a while, or if you're from the future, and reading this when the next chapter's already been posted, I'll see you in a few seconds. Bye!**


	17. Goodbye Friends

**Hey there! Wait, you don't remember me? I know, I haven't updated this story in forever...school...and stuff. I've got literally all advanced classes and I'm in a lot of robotics stuff right now, going to the** _ **national**_ **robotics competition for VEX IQ, so that's fun. Wish me luck! Now, on to what you really came here for, what's going to happen next…**

 **Point of view for this chapter is...Ash, it's time to create a flaw...**

 **I don't own this series, I own a computer, and a keyboard, and an account on this website, but not the book series.**

"How in the world are we gonna do that?" Kinkajou asked, uncurling herself.

"One, mind reading, two, cell phone." Ash replied as he stopped pacing, taking off his shoe.

"What, are we gonna knock them out with a shoe?" Kinkajou asked, trying to sound hopeful again.

"They didn't check them, I hid my phone in it, and now, we've got a source of communication." Ash said proudly.

"Good thinking."

He grabbed his phone and hid it in his pocket, just in case someone came to check on them. This had to work, they were trapped, and if they didn't do anything, then their friends were probably going to get captured, too. He was NOT going to let that happen on any circumstances.

"Alright, so...what's our course of action?" Kinkajou asked.

"Uh…" he had no idea what to do, this was the first time he was the one to make a plan rather than follow it...and it was everyone's lives that he was responsible for.

"Alright!" a voice shouted from down the jail hall, "we're taking you out for a bit. Get over here Night, Rainbow, if you try anything, I will kill you."

Morrowseer came up to them, unlocking the cell door. Ash could feel Kinkajou slipped his phone out of his pocket while Morrowseer was distracted, and could tell that she slipped it into hers.

Morrowseer walked him down a long corridor of pure white walls until they reached an open room, he never let go of Ash's arm, and he didn't try to get away. Morrowseer for the duration of the trip had a mental barrier up and wasn't letting Ash read his mind, every time he tried, he felt like he received some sort of jolt that felt like static electricity.

When they reached the room, Ash was finally able to get a thought from Morrowseer,

" _This is a test, what am I thinking?"_

"You're telling me that this is a test." Ash said to him. Quick as lighting, the barrier went back up, but not before he sensed a major sense of insecurity and vulnerability.

"Alright then, you are as valuable as we thought you were." Morrowseer sneered, acting as if he didn't feel scared.

"Aight then, I guess there's no point pretending. You caught me trying to hack into your computer after you were darted, you know that I'm friends with your targets, look at their families. You also know that I can read minds, and because I successfully hacked into you computer, you know that I'm also good with technology. I even skipped a grade, being in advanced high school at only fourteen years old. I'm more valuable to you than you know. The more you hurt me, the more resilient I get. If you break me mentally and physically, I'll lose some of those traits, and you don't want that. Try negotiating with me instead, I will do anything to save my friends, if not...I'll never work with you." Ash finished his monologue.

"We don't negotiate, Night," Morrowseer threatened, "but we do listen to Scarlet. We've already figured out a plan, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

Ash was silent, alright then, he couldn't reason with the enemy, but...he could learn from them.

"So what is your plan?" Ash asked.

"I'm not a movie or game villain, I'm not going to tell you my entire plan just so you can foil it, idiot." Morrowseer grumbled.

He's scared, he thinks that the plan can go wrong, so that means there might just be a chance that they could stop it.

Morrowseer did some more testing to make sure that he was a mind reader and knew about his friends, as well as having him hack some technology to prove that he could.

Eventually, testing was done, and Morrowseer took him back to his cell with Kinkajou. Well...not like there was anywhere else, it was just the one in the entire hallway.

"What did he do to you?" Kinkajou asked frantically, seeing Ash's stoic face.

"They're doing something big...before, you said she just wanted to rule the mountain area, right?" Ash asked, finally realizing something.

"Yeah…" Kinkajou replied, sounding uncertain.

"She wants everyone else to come here, too. Not for revenge, but for power." Ash said.

"What do you mean?" Kinkajou asked, going wide eyed.

"Qibli, stepson to Thorn. Turtle, son to Coral. Carnelian, came here on Ruby's request. Umber, brother of Reed, who knows Moorhen well. Winter, nephew of Glacier. Moon, best friends with Kinkajou." Ash counted off the names.

"Kinkajou, best friends with Glory." she finished in a hushed voice.

"They're going for world domination…" Ash finally understood the plan that they were worried about.

"I need to call them, if we don't tell them that she's planning this, then they'll come to rescue us." Kinkajou said, grabbing Ash's phone.

"Ready to sacrifice ourselves to save the world?" Ash asked, realizing how drastic this situation was.

"Yes." Kinkajou replied, determined.

"I'll get the password." Ash said, taking the phone and dialing Moon's number.

 _Ring._

 _Ring._

 _Ring._

"Hello?" Moon asked through the end, sounding as scared as she could be.

"Moon, it's Ash and Kinkajou."

"Wait what! How?"

"I hid my phone in my shoe."

"Brilliant."

"Alright, we need to tell you something, Scarlet has us, and wants you all to come try to save us...you won't succeed."

"What? Of course we're coming to get you!"

"NO! You can't!"

"We are saving you."

"If you even try, you'll be caught, and using the people you're in relations with...Scarlet's either going to take over the world, or kill us all...and there's no way to prevent that."

"What do you-"

"You're all related in some way to the people who govern this country…"

"..."

"You can't rescue us...we talked...it's better this than the world being ruled by _her_."

"..."

"Got it?"

"Of...of course...we understand…"

"So this is the last phone call, we're going to be able to give you…" Ash finally realized what he was saying, and the tears started to fall. He didn't have to look to tell Kinkajou was having the same situation.

"Ash…Kinkajou…"

"It's okay, just...enjoy the future for us…"

"Is this really goodbye?"

"Y-"

"What?"

"I'm-I'm scared, Moon."

"I know…"

"I can't talk anymore, please...don't come for us...here's Kinkajou."

Ash handed the phone to Kinkajou and zoned out. He was curled on the floor as Kinkajou was earlier. He was crying...hard. At only fourteen years old, he would start his life in this awful place. And stay here until he died. Kinkajou was saying something, but he wasn't listening.

"Alright...well, I guess that's that...goodbye, everyone." Kinkajou finished and hung up, giving Ash his phone back. She hugged him and started crying herself. They just had that silent bonding moment together, feeling scared but resolute in their decision. Everything was spinning, they were still in shock.

" _Well...that happened...plan B?"_ someone thought in some other room.

Wait, what? Ash perked his head up. He looked at his phone to see if something had made a real noise rather than a thought, he saw a message that read.

"You just did one of two things, delayed the inevitable, or doomed your school to a fiery end. -Scarlet."

Kinkajou stayed where she was...still unable to grasp what they'd just done.

Ash focused his entire mind on hearing the conversation that Chameleon and Orca so politely left their heads open for.

" _So...Night's warned them of what we want...what do we do?"_ Chameleon thought as he said it.

" _Well, we go to Scarlet's plan B."_ Orca, that had to be her.

" _Are you sure?"_

" _Yes...prepare the missile, and set coordinates for Jade Academy."_

 **Oh wow...that escalated quickly. And now we have it, the intro to the climax. What's gonna happen? How in the world is this gonna work? I have a quick question for you, put it in the review if you want. If you were in this situation, which would you do? Try and save your friends and risk world domination? Or let everything you know and love be blown up by the enemy? It's a touch decision, see you next chapter!**


	18. The Final Shot

**And it's back! After weeks (Two minutes) of planning, I've got this pretty awesome (sub-par) chapter to give you! Leave your reviews! Thank you for all the support! And just warning you, there may be the loss of someone who some of you may love or be feeling 'meh' about...stay tuned. Also, please check out my other story, Everything Wrong With Wings of Fire, cause I need help!**

 **Point of View for this story is...Moon! Back by popular demand!**

 **I don't own the series, but I can safely say I own THIS series.**

Moon felt awful.

She felt helpless.

Carnelian was flaming,

Qibli was pacing.

Turtle was looking at the ground, face blank.

Umber was muttering to himself.

Winter was fuming.

Frostbite had his head in his hands.

Kinkajou was trapped, with only one other companion.

Ash was trapped, with only one other companion.

Alone.

They had to do something, but they couldn't, otherwise everything would go to the dogs. They couldn't just leave them! They _had_ to leave them. Moon's head was reeling, and it wasn't from other's thoughts this time, either.

RING! RING! RING!

Moon's phone was ringing, and once again, it had Ash's name on the contact info. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and looked at the phone. Moon hesitated, then picked up the phone, and turned it on speaker.

"Guys." Ash spoke frantically through the receiver, "There's not much time, I overheard Chameleon and Orca. They had a backup plan, and now you have two options…"

"What?" Moon asked, holding her breath.

"Option A, risk everything, and either save us, or let Scarlet take over. Or option B, leave us here, and the world safe, and let all of Jade Academy be wiped from existence by a missile."

"WAIT WHAT?" Carnelian shouted, turning as red as a tomato from rage.

"What do you mean?" Moon asked, trembling.

"It means that we have to act fast, so we need a plan. And not a we can do it plan. A foolproof we _will_ do it plan."

"Alright."

There was silence…

"Crap! My phone's about to die, all I want to say is that-"

And he was gone. The phone was dead, as well as their only source of communication.

"All you want to say is what!?" Winter screamed, scared, mad, and confused all at once.

"We need to do this, now." Qibli said, grabbing his keys. "We can discuss a plan in the car, but right now, we need to go, we don't know how much time we have."

…

…

…

They pulled up into the entrance of a cave. Darkness was all around them, the sun was rising in the distance, casting an eerie red glow over the area. The crunching of gravel was all the group could hear, they were all holding their breaths. Ready for the worst to happen.

The car door opened, and they all walked inside. They all knew what Scarlet wanted. She wanted all of them together, so they were going to give it to her. Qibli had a tranquilizer gun in his pocket, as well as Carnelian and Moon.

They walked through the gray, dead halls of the new base, coming to a stop at a giant open room.

Morrowseer was standing in the center of it.

"Welcome you all, I'm so glad you could make it. Come with me."

They obliged, walking until they were in another hallway.

Moon slipped the dart gun out of her pocket silently, and pointed it at her father's neck, and pulled the trigger.

"What the-oh no…" Morrowseer gasped, reaching to his neck and feeling the dart, a look of relief fell over his face as he lost unconsciousness and collapsed.

"Alright, we need to go." Qibli said, face resolute." Me, Turtle, Winter, and Frostbite will go find Ash and Kinkajou. Moon, Carnelian, Umber, can you find the others and dart them, too? These effects should last for at least ten hours."

"Got it." They all said at once.

Moon got in the front, Carnelian and Umber behind her, and started down the hallway that looked cleaner than the one before, but still gray and dark.

Eventually, after a long time of not daring to talk, they reached a room with a giant monitor, with a camera screen on it. Chameleon sat in it, asleep.

Carnelian quickly darted him, not getting much of a reaction.

They saw on the camera that Qibli and the others were getting close to the cell, Moon still shuddered thinking of it, and Scarlet and Orca were eating in a different room, far away from the others, but two room down from where she was.

Looking at everything, she asked. "So, who wants to smash this thing?"

Umber walked up to the monitor, "Oh, I've been waiting to something like this for a long time." Taking the hammer that he had as a weapon for safety out of his pocket, he chucked it at the screen. Everything about it was comforting, the way the hammer flew, the crash of the glass, and the satisfying static that parts of the screen now showed.

"Alright, let's go."

They headed into the next room, quiet as anything.

Seeing the two girls in there, Carnelian and Moon got their guns ready.

" _Now."_ Moon mouthed to Carnelian. They slammed the door open and ran through.

"Holy-what the heck!?" Orca screamed as the dart fired by Moon landed right at her neck. Scarlet looked angry and surprised at the same time as a dart went near her. Moon couldn't tell if it landed in the target area or not because of her hair.

Although, when Scarlet flu led to the floor, asleep, Moon couldn't help but feel proud of Carnelian.

"Alright, we need to regroup with the others. We agreed on the first room we went in, so let's go. Also, on that monitor, now that I feel I can talk, did anyone see and missile controls?" Moon asked.

"I think they were using that as an empty threat, knowing what we would do instead." Carnelian said.

"Luckily, we did exactly what they feared, took them down." Umber said for them.

"Let's go."

It took a while to backtrack to where they needed to go, but they were finally able to make it there. Moon had never felt so happy to see Ash and Kinkajou.

"You're okay!" Moon sobbed as she hugged Ash harder than she thought possible. "Don't ever do that again!"

"We won't, we promise." Kinkajou said, Ash had started crying, too.

 _Alright, what did they do to you?_ Moon thought to Ash.

 _Nothing, just some interrogation and threats._ Ash replied

 _Good, we're like siblings, and if I lost you…_

 _Winter would have cheered you up._

 _I know, but still…_

 _Don't worry, it didn't happen._

Ash had stopped crying, and Moon had too, and now they couldn't help smiling.

Everything was going to be okay.

…

…

…

BANG

Moon screamed. Ash gasped. No one else could say a thing.

Moon looked around Ash, and saw Scarlet, standing there, holding a gun.

Pointed at them.

Moon spun Ash around, and saw there, his back covered in blood.

"YOU ARE DONE HURTING MY FRIENDS!" someone screamed, then Moon saw Winter, charging at the smirking Scarlet.

Scarlet pulled up her gun, pointed at Winter's chest.

"NO!"

BANG!

Winter slowed to a stop, clutching at his chest. His blood covered chest.

"NO! WINTER!" Moon and Qibli screamed at the same time. She was filled with shock and sadness, the latter with fury.

Qibli pulled out his tranquilizer dart, and pointed it at Scarlet.

"I am _done_ with you Jade Academy brats." Scarlet said, pulling out her gun, pointing it next at Moon.

Qibli fired.

Moon got down.

Scarlet fired.

Scarlet missed, Qibli's landed right on target, the center of Scarlet's neck.

"You…" Scarlet started, falling on the floor.

"Are never hurting us again." Qibli finished as she fell asleep.

"Winter!" Moon screamed again, running over to him. He was losing blood fast.

"Did we win?" Winter asked, his eyes going in a den out of focus. He was still clutching his chest.

"Yes Winter, we won…" Moon said, the world crashing around her.

"Good...Moon?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry...we couldn't...have been...together for longer. Enjoy...the future. Okay?" Winter said, a smile on his face.

"I will Winter...I will…" Moon felt the tears start falling.

"Hey, don't cry. Please. Let my last sight be of you happy." Winter requested.

It took all of her strength. But she smiled for him, crying, and holding him.

Winter stopped breathing.

Moon stayed there for a long time, holding him. The smiling, peaceful body of Winter.

 _Hey Moon?_ Ash thought to her.

Oh no! Ash! No no no no!

"Don't you go, too! Please!" Moon screamed, running over to him.

 _That's not my decision to make, and you know what, it's okay. It's better than staying in there my whole life._

 _Please Ash, don't you go too…_ Moon thought to him.

 _Don't worry about it, also, I found out that Kinkajou really doesn't like Coconut. But that's besides the point. I'm happy. I'm okay. I literally have only one regret._

 _What?_

 _That I never got to finish my earlier sentence._

 _Which one?_

 _When my phone died, All I want to say is I love all of you. I'm too weak to say it now. But please convey the message. Wherever I go, please don't forget about me…_

 _Ash…_

 _Don't be sad, just know that I'll wait for you guys. Also, tell Secretkeeper that my last request is for you to stay in this school._

 _Why?_

 _Just trust me…_

And with that, they were both gone.

"What did he say?" Frostbite asked, shocked.

"They loved us all, both of them…" Moon said, collapsing onto the floor from sadness, shock, and adrenaline all at once.

She fell asleep, with one last thought before she lost consciousness.

They had finally...finally won.

 **Oh my gosh the feels! I'm so sorry I had to end it like that. But it felt right. I dunno. It's my story! Also, READ THIS! Good to see you're listening. It came to my attention that someone was trying to impersonate me. It didn't do any harm, and the matter was solved in like five minutes. But really dude? Why not impersonate someone better?**

 **Sorry about not updating the Everything Wrong With Series, but again. I'm really unmotivated as the chapters take like 6 hours straight to write, so someone please help me with that. Thanks for reading!**

 **AshEmber...out.**


	19. Jade Scarlet Escape

**Hey! Should I be scared of people who really liked Winter? I know! I'm sorry I killed Winter! But seriously, who didn't feel emotion from that chapter? That was my goal, to pull a twist at the end, and Winter got what he wanted. Also...just a side thought, people were 100% against the fact that Winter died, it got you all to feel emotional about the story, that's what I was going for, but everyone was completely fine with me dead...you gotta love the Internet sometimes man…(not really, I don't care :D) Anyway, enjoy the last two chapters of Jade Academy. Also, after much delay, Dazzle, Cuberman's character, is here!**

 **Point of view for this chapter is...Carnelian!**

 **Well, I've already made you all angry at this point so YES I DO OWN WINGS OF FIRE! (No I don't.)**

No.

This couldn't be happening.

This just happened.

It couldn't happen.

This wasn't real.

This couldn't be real!

This was real.

This was very...very real.

No…

"Did...did that really just happen?" Umber asked very quietly, looking around at the sleeping figure of Scarlet, and the unmoving forms of Winter and Ash, and at Moon, sobbing, at Qibli, fuming, at Turtle, shocked, at Kinkajou, scared, at Frostbite, disbelieving, at herself...she had no idea what to feel anymore.

"Yes...yes it did." Qibli said, a tear falling from his eye.

"Call the cops, we have exactly nine hours before the first of them wakes up." Carnelian said, trying not to cry herself.

Dang it Winter! Dang it Ash! **** you Scarlet!

"No, no, no, not again, never again." Umber started saying to himself before breaking down on the floor, shaking, "I can't lose anyone else, no, no, no…"

"Umber…" Turtle gasped, kneeling behind him.

Carnelian couldn't tell who was more broken by what just happened, Moon, Qibli, or Umber. Why does the world have to be so cruel sometimes?

Moon had just lost both the kid who was like her little brother, and her boyfriend. Qibli just lost his roommate, his best friend. Frostbite had just lost two of his best friends. And Umber just lost two good friends after the traumatic event of losing his sister.

Sure, Carnelian had seen horrible stories before, but never had any stung as much as this.

Police sirens could be heard outside this literal hell, and she rushed outside to meet them.

"Miss, my name is Dazzle, we got your call, what's going o-" said the officer.

"Dazzle? Help us!" Carnelian yelled, realizing who it was.

"Carnelian! What's going on?"

"Two of my friends just got murdered and we stopped an insane psychopath from taking over the country. Get it here before they wake up from the sleeping darts!"

"Right away, TEAM! Move in!" Dazzle yelled, going into the cave, Carnelian followed them, making sure they knew where everyone was.

"There are four of them, the first being right here in this cave, the one in the red." Carnelian said, pointing to the unconscious form of Scarlet, sleeping…peaceful. The exact opposite of her and all of her friends.

Carnelian helped Dazzle and everyone else grab all of Scarlet's followers and put them in handcuffs, Scarlet in a straight jacket, and put them in the police car. Then, Dazzle, turned to her, giving her a blanket and rushing in to grab her friends.

Moon came out first, unblinking, wide eyed. Qibli came out next, looking dejected and broken. Turtle and Umber came out together, Turtle helping Umber, stone faced, and Umber crying into his shoulder. Frostbite and Kinkajou came next. Kinkajou had her head down, and Frostbite had tears in his eyes.

They were all wrapped in the same blankets.

Carnelian had to look away when they came out with two body bags, though.

"Hey, Carnelian." Dazzle said, approaching her.

"Hey, Dazzle."

"So what happened here?"

"I guess I should start from the beginning."

"Yeah."

"So one day, Winter, the one in the blue who...died...got kidnapped by Scarlet, and used for ransom to get Moon to go to her."

"Why did she want Moon?"

"She-"

No, this wasn't her secret to give out. Moon should tell him if he wanted to.

"She wanted her because her dad was one of her followers."

"Okay, continue."

"After that, we went to go save her, and Winter lost his color vision in the process from a poisoned bullet that Scarlet shot at his shoulder. We thought we'd killed her, but I guess we were wrong."

"You guess?"

"We were wrong."

"Go on."

"Once we were sure she was still alive, we made a plan to get her in prison. In the process, Kinkajou and Ash got kidnapped."

"And Ash is?"

"The other...dead...one."

"Okay."

"They told us that if we called the police, they would fire a missile at our school. And...wait a second...we didn't see any controls for anything…"

"You're saying?"

"They never had a missile, they were bluffing, all of this could have been avoided! We just didn't want anyone else to get hurt! Dang it!"

"I know what happened after that, you don't need to explain anymore, thank you Carnelian." Dazzle said, putting down the notebook that he'd been writing in down.

"Dangit dangit dangit dangit dangit!"

…

...

...

She yelled that the entire ride home, and in her head for most of the night.

…

…

…

Two days after the Scarlet Jade Escape, two days since they'd lost Ash and Winter. Two days after they'd stopped Scarlet. It was time for the trial of Scarlet. It was time for her and her followers to be put to justice.

"And court is now in session." declared the judge. "Today we are on trial for the case of Scarlet Sky, in the case for one first degree murder, one second degree murder, and four cases of kidnapping. Scarlet, how do you plead?"

"I'll plead not guilty." Scarlet said, trying to keep things 'thrilling' as usual.

"THAT'S A LIE!" Moon shouted, standing up from the seat at the table she, Carnelian, Umber, Turtle, Kinkajou, Qibli, and Frostbite were at. "THAT IS A LIE! HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT? YOU MURDERED MY FRIENDS!"

Moon tried to leave the table, looking like she was about to attack Scarlet but was stopped when Carnelian grabbed her arm.

"Not now." she said, it hurt. She wanted to get Scarlet, too, but she'd learned since her time at Jade Academy, violence isn't the answer. Man that school changed her.

"Settle down, Moonwatcher, if she is guilty, she will be served justice. And if she is found guilty, punishment is death row. And because she's pleaded not guilty, it might even be more."

"Mother," said a voice from the prosecutor's chair, "I will take you down, no matter the cost."

"Well then, Ruby, not much I can do in this position, but I got revenge on you brats, it's kind of a bittersweet ending, isn't it? You get the bad guy, yay! But you lose two good people, boo hoo. So thrilling, isn't it?"

"Nothing you do will even be good or thrilling in any way, Scarlet." said Carnelian.

…

…

…

After a very boring court session, the evidence was pulled on Scarlet, and she just laughed, walking off into the room with the electric chair smiling.

…

…

...

"Was it all worth it?" said Carnelian when she, Moon, and Kinkajou were back in their dorm room. They'd gotten a week off of school again, and now it was just time to relax...they'd saved the world, after all.

"Yes...it was…" Kinkajou said, smiling for what seemed like the first time in days.

""I agree." said Moon, "Sure, I don't like what happened…no one does...but we need to look at what didn't happen. We probably got the best possible outcome. Sadly, it was the best case scenario."

"NO IT WASN'T!" Carnelian shouted, surprising even herself. "THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF I'D ACTUALLY HIT SCARLET THE FIRST TIME!"

She had missed Scarlet when they found her. She had taken her falling asleep act for real, she had failed, and her failure cost their friends lives.

"No, no…Carnelian, it's okay, we're okay. No one's angry at you. You don't need to hate yourself." said Moon, trying to comfort her.

"I already do, it's not like that's going to change anytime soon, I'm stupid, I'm useless, and I killed Ash and Winter."

"Stop...now." Kinkajou said, getting a stone face again. "Do you really think after all this we're just gonna turn and start hating you? You were the only one to do anything when the police arrived, you were brave enough to try and stop Scarlet, you came and saved me."

Nothing was said, they were looking at Carnelian with the most heartfelt expressions she'd ever seen, so she had no choice but to believe them.

"Alright, I believe you." Carnelian said, flopping down on her bed, exhausted, but before she fell asleep, she said one last thing. "Thank you, so much."

 **Alright, so ends chapter 19. The second to last chapter of the series, and guess what? I GOT MY FIRST OFFICIAL HATE COMMENT! Yay? Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, and there's one more chapters after this. I am so excited to bring this story to a close.**

 **AshEmber out!**


	20. End of the Year

**Alright, this is it. The final chapter of this series. I can't believe how much support you've all given me, and I'll be sure to talk more about that in the author's note conclusion. Thank you all so much for reading, and without further ado, here's the last chapter.**

 **Point of View for this chapter is...Qibli.**

 **I don't own Wings of Fire, but I can happily say that it's made all this...possible.**

It's finally over...it's time to go back to a normal life. Or as normal as you could get.

Ash and Winter had had their respective funerals, and everyone was staying in the school. Moon had convinced her mother that Ash had wanted her to stay, and that she was finally safe. Qibli couldn't help but cry during Winter's. His best friend, gone. It was going to be tough. Winter had died so young, but he had died getting what he wanted. He had proved himself to his family. He'd finally become as recognized as he wanted to be. His family was there, in the front row with Qibli. His mother, Tundra, father, Narwhal, sister, Icicle, brother, Hailstorm. Even Glacier was there, and they all looked proud and broken at the same time.

Icicle turned to Qibli at the end of it, and said, "So, you're that Qibli that Winter was so fond of?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you for keeping our little brother safe for so long. I'm sorry it had to end like this."

"It's...nothing…"

Qibli had to leave right then, and ended up in his room after, not knowing what to think.

He'd become pretty reclusive since then, not wanting to leave his room, only going outside to eat. And even then, that was rare.

Frostbite had tried to come and talk to him, but all Qibli could hear from him were some choked words.

He only talked with his friends through computer messaging. And one night, about a week after the funeral, almost a month after the Jade Scarlet Escape, he got a message from Kinkajou.

'I want you to skype me, right now.'

He called her, and she answered, but it wasn't Kinkajou he saw, it was her, Moon, Frostbite, Umber, Turtle, and Carnelian.

"You...look...terrible." Turtle observed.

"I feel terrible." Qibli replied.

"Alright, Qibli, we need to talk face to face, so can we meet somewhere?" Moon asked, she looked much better than Qibli did.

"Sure, I haven't seen natural sunlight for days." Qibli said, actually relieved that they'd asked him first.

"Come on! We need to see you aga-" Kinkajou started, "Oh, wait, you said yes, that was easier than we thought it would be, where should we meet?"

"Let's go to Mangrove and Orchid's cafe, I need some nostalgia right now."

"Okay." they all said as the computer turned off.

Well, this was going to be tough, Qibli grabbed his keys, and started walking off towards the parking lot.

He must have taken a long time, because they were already there by the time he was even in sight of his car.

"So, off to the coffee shop?" Qibli asked when he got to his car.

"Sure, do you want to drive?" Moon asked.

"I don't think I can, Moon." Qibli replied.

"Alright."

Qibli threw the keys to Moon, and got into the passenger seat. Umber, Turtle, and Kinkajou got in the middle, and Carnelian and Frostbite got in the back.

"You know, you guys have made this year both one of the best, and one of the worst years of my life." Qibli said, needing to get these things off of his chest.

"Why's that?" Moon asked.

"Well, you took me away from the guardian I was protecting, you took me away from solitude. You gave me a best friend, you took away that best friend."

No one said anything.

"But then, the beautiful things came as well. You showed me friendship and working together. You showed me how to lead, and how to follow. You showed me how to care about more than just leaders, you showed me how to love."

No one said anything.

"You showed me both the greatest, and worst times of my life. And no matter what it was going to be the greatest and the worst, because that's how life is. It's this roller coaster that doesn't stay the same, ever. You showed me how to care about others. Thank you."

"Wow, Qibli, that's probably the best thing I've ever heard from anyone." Umber said, in awe.

"Thanks."

"So, is Qibli back, now?" Moon asked him.

"Back as ever." Qibli said, smiling for the first time in weeks.

They pulled out of the school. They were on the highway, into the city, into the shopping district.

"So, now that you're back, are you ready to enter our robot into the competition in April?" Moon asked.

"Of course."

"Oh! So that's what your pet project was!" Kinkajou exclaimed.

"Yep."

They pulled into the parking lot, and got out of the car.

"So, Qibli, we're both alone in our dorm rooms right now...right?" Frostbite asked as he got out of the car.

"Yeah?"

"So do you want to be roommates with me?"

"Yeah, some company would do us both good."

They walked into the store, and Mangrove took their orders.

The sky was a nice shade of Jade in the evening. The world was at peace. Scarlet blood was not going to be shed. Jade Academy would keep it's doors open.

"I'll have a vanilla steamer."

 **And with that, the series comes to a close. There's just one more thing for next chapter, the author's note finale. Where I want to level with you all. I'll see you on Sunday for the final chapter of this story.**


	21. Author Thoughts

**Hey guys. I can't believe how many people have stayed with me through this journey. And, with everything that's happened with me and this series, I just wanted to take a moment and level with my (this is so weird for me to say) fans.**

 **When I started this thing, I was a nerd who liked writing books. I saw this website, and thought it would be fun to try it out. I made the first chapter. I only got positive reviews. It was an incredible feeling.**

 **As I made more and more chapters, there were more and more people supporting me. People were eager about the challenges. People were really excited when a new chapter came out. It was an incredible feeling, you know? Knowing that people wanted to see the things you created?**

 **It was unbelievable. In fact, as of now, with the amazing amount of the one hundred thirty five reviews, there has only been one bad one. From a guest. You know what that means? It means that everyone that loved the series in the beginning, loved the series to the end. It was an amazing thing to think about.**

 **I did take a break from this because I was pretty overloaded with schoolwork at the moment. Even then, people still supported the series. When I came back, people were excited.**

 **Then the big blast came, Winter and Ash died, real quick, everyone was 100% against the fact that Winter died, but fine with me dead...okay then? I don't really mind actually but XD.**

 **Even after that happened, people loved the series even then. It's kind of like what happens in the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If you've read it you'll know what I mean.**

 **Everyone wants that sugarcoated story where everyone makes it out okay, and they were somehow able to outsmart the mastermind villain. But then again, how do you outsmart a mastermind?**

 **Alright, I'm done with my tangent. You know, you guys changed my life. I'd never had so many people love something that I've created, I've never had almost 8,000 people look at something I made. I've never been given so much support.**

 **So with that, everyone here knows I'm a learning writer, artist, video maker, I'm learning it all. I accidentally said that Winter got coffee and water when I meant that Turtle got water. I accidentally switched to first person in one of the chapters. So I want your guys' opinion on this.**

 **Please, whether you have an account or whether you are a guest, I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review. Tell me what you thought about the series. I really want to see your feedback.**

 **Thank you so much for sticking with me through this journey.**

 **And for the last time with this series. AshEmber…**

 **Out.**


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